A THICK DESCRIPTION OF HARRY SMITH, a proto-psychedelic medicine show, takes a wild ride through the life, work and times of filmmaker, musicologist, painter, anthropologist, collector, occultist and fabulist, Harry Everett Smith. Best known for editing the seminal Anthology of American Folk Music, Smith's peculiar life is an emblem of American bohemian life in the 20th Century. Conceived as a Prairie Home Companion style variety show, Thick Description uses reworked folk songs, radio vignettes of real, speculative and imagined episodes of Harry Smith's life, Foley work, and a wide variety of storytelling styles to reveal an alternative conception of American identity.