On Centre: Penns Valley

Festival embraces America's 'shared musical heritage'

Ed Mahon

Stop me if you've memorized the lyrics to "Moonshiner's Dance Part One," "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" and "Mississippi Boweavil Blues."

Originally released in 1952, Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music contains dozens of songs, most of which you’ve probably never heard. But the collection, which combines country, cajun, blues, gospel and other genres, is credited with making folk music cool again, and influencing artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the late Jerry Garcia.

“On first look, it seems like it’s a bunch of rough stones,” said Millheim singer and guitarist and Penn State education professor Kai Schafft, “but they’re actually diamonds.”

Schafft’s band, The Chicken Tractor, and the Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks will host the second annual Harry Smith Festival from 2 to 8 p.m. Nov. 15. Eight bands will perform dozens of songs from Smith’s anthology.

Smith, who died in 1991, was a collector whose eclectic finds included Ukrainian Easter eggs, Seminole Indian blankets, string figures and 78 rpm records. The latter led to the creation of the anthology.

“It’s really an incredible document of the shared musical heritage of American culture,” Schafft said.

One of the songs Schafft’s band will perform is “Mississippi Boweavil Blues,” originally released in 1929 by a musician named The Masked Marvel. He turned out to be Charlie Patton, now considered the father of the Delta Blues.

The song tells the story of a farmer battling a boll weevil — a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers.

“It’s an interesting song, because in some ways it’s told from the vantage point of the boll weevil. Even though it’s an instrument of destruction, it has a funny kind of agency,” Schafft said. “The singer has no small amount of respect for the boll weevil, which kind of does its own thing, goes its own way and isn’t beholden to anybody.”

I studied the anthology, looking for songs I might recognize. I spotted two that have been sung by Bob Dylan, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and “John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man.” I know I’ve heard “I’m In the Battle Field for My Lord,” but I couldn’t tell you where.

I went searching for the Boweavil Blues, and found two things: One, the artists who covered it included Lead Belly, Eddie Cochran and White Stripes. Two, the spelling of boll weevil seems open to interpretation.

Music festival tickets will be $10 at the door. Children younger than 12 get in free.

Here’s the lineup: The Black Eyed Suzies, from Ithaca, N.Y.; The Wringers, from Lancaster; The Wayward Girls, from Ithaca, N.Y.; The Jivebombers, with Jerry Zolten from Altoona; Rusty Gun Revival, from Clearfield County; Berrit Smylin Band, from Penns Valley; Steve Curtis & Erika Simonian, from Brooklyn, N.Y.; and the aforementioned The Chicken Tractor.

Proceeds will benefit the Aaronsburg Area Public Library and The Hope Fund of Penns Valley. For more information, visit www.pennsvalleyhopefund.com. Donations can be made in care of the Northwest Savings Bank, P.O. Box 395, 219 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Centre Hall, PA 16828, or you can donate at the event.

Ed Mahon writes about news from the Penns and Brush Valley regions. He can be reached at 231-4619 or emahon@centredaily.com.