An All-Star Line-up of Musicians Celebrate One of Popular Music's Most Groundbreaking Recordings, Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music" at UCLA's Royce Hall, Apr. 25-26

Sold-out in London and New York, the West Coast roster includes Beck, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull and Van Dyke Parks.

"Harry Smith's 'Anthology of American Folk Music' constitutes a bedrock of our national musical identity." --Rolling Stone

UCLA Performing Arts presents "The Harry Smith Project," featuring an all-star lineup of popular musicians in a radical reinterpretation of one of music's most seminal recordings, Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music." This series of concerts takes place on two consecutive nights at 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, April 25-26 at UCLA's Royce Hall. Anthony Seeger, professor in UCLA's Ethnomusicology department and former director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, will give CenterStage discussions one hour prior to each performance.

Artists scheduled to perform include Elvis Costello, Beck, Marianne Faithfull, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Van Dyke Parks (with Steve Young), Bob Neuwirth, Gavin Friday with Maurice Seezer, David Thomas, Percy Heath, The Folksmen (Jerry Palter, Alan Barrows and Mark Shubb - a.k.a. Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest), Robyn Holcomb, Todd Rundgren, Eric Mingus, Adam Dorn, Bill Frisell, T-Bone Burnett and Sam Phillips. The house band will include Frisell, Smokey Hormel, Joey Warnoker and Ralph Carney.

The Harry Smith Project is presented in association with The Getty Research Institute and the Harry Smith Archives. The Getty Research Institute is planning the first interdisciplinary symposium on the work and legacy of Smith called "Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular." The two-day symposium will take place on Friday - Saturday, April 20 and 21, in the Getty Center's Harold M. Williams Auditorium and will feature lectures with discussion, multi-media presentations, a screening of Harry Smith's films, and a musical performance inspired by his "Anthology of American Folk Music."

One of the most complex and eccentric figures of twentieth century American culture, Harry Smith made major contributions to the fields of sound recording, independent filmmaking, the visual arts, philosophy, and what might be termed "outsider anthropology." But his most significant contribution came in 1952, with the release of his sprawling "Anthology of American Folk Music" (on Moe Asch's Folkways Records), a six LP set of 84 songs originally recorded between 1927 and 1932. Featuring an idiosyncratic collection of work songs, murder ballads, Cajun tunes, backwoods sermons and hillbilly blues, the anthology introduced the world to such legendary musicians as the Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt, Uncle Dave Macon and Doc Boggs and rescued an important chapter in America's cultural history from obscurity.

Widely credited with spurring the folk music revival of the 50's and 60's and the maturation of rock n' roll, as well as influencing generations of musicians - from Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Patti Smith to Nick Cave, Wilco and Courtney Love - the anthology's impact on popular music is immeasurable. Its peculiar genius continues to influence the tone of contemporary music. Reissued in 1997 by Smithsonian Folkways, it won two Grammy awards.

UCLA Performing Arts' Director David Sefton first presented The Harry Smith Project in July, 1999 at London's Royal Festival Hall (where he was then head of contemporary culture) and four months later at St. Ann's Art Center in New York City. Both engagements sold-out - its rosters featuring several of today's most original pop artists including Beth Orton, Jarvis Cocker, Rufus Wainwright and D.J. Spooky.

That the anthology stills resonates today is a testament, not only to the music, but also to the anthologist. Uninterested in simply creating a "record" of musical history, Smith patterned his collection in an effort to uncover something universal about American identity and the human experience.

"First hearing the 'Anthology of American Folk Music' is like discovering the secret script of so many familiar musical dramas," said Elvis Costello. "We are fortunate that someone collected these performances of such wildness, straightforward beauty and humanity."

"He applied a curatorial perspective to the way in which he organized the collection - transcending racial, secular and religious distinctions in favor of musical and thematic connections," said Sefton. "The choices that he made give this collection its own identity and its strength."

Smith's fascination with patterns infused all of his works. Rani Singh, Smith's former assistant, and director of the Harry Smith Archives, describes him as a "proto-psychedelic." "He saw the world through a grand schema of alchemical connections," said Singh. "It was this all-inclusive aesthetic; the desire to show how everything connects that he felt best disclosed the elemental structure of human existence."

UCLA Performing Arts' collaboration with the Getty will help shed light on how Smith's strange and wondrous worldview continues to inspire new generations of artists, musicians and eccentrics. "His works often speak to the roots of things," said Sefton. "Almost in the same way that understanding Latin helps you better understand English, Harry Smith's works serve as the source material from which so much inspiration has been drawn."

Tickets to the Harry Smith Project are available for $70, $50, $30 and $15 (UCLA students with valid I.D.) at the UCLA Central Ticket Office at the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center, online at www.performingarts.ucla.edu and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information or to charge by phone, call (310) 825-2101.