Every field recording by Alan Lomax

April 22, 2021 8:42 AM

Alan Lomax's field recordings are available on a newly-redesigned site. Alan Lomax started making recordings for the Library of Congress in 1933, with his father John, and recorded folk music and interviews from around the United States and the world on reel-to-reel tape between 1946 and 1991. These field recordings are the source material that sparked the American folk revival in the 1950s and 1960s.

Most of the pre-1946 recordings (which include, famously, Lomax's 1933 "discovery" of Lead Belly) are still being digitized and catalogued, but there are many gems:

Darling Corey (1937)
Little Brown Jug (1938)
The Bold Grenadier (1954)
Johnny Come Down to Hilo (1955)
Shenandoah (1955)
1947 recordings from the Mississippi State Penitentiary, including John Henry, Take This Hammer, and Stagolee
An oral history of Delta blues from 1947

posted by goingonit (13 comments total)

Wow.
posted by eotvos at 8:59 AM on April 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

With all the toxic elements of the internet, it is easy to forget the great promise fulfilled by this network of communication. This is such a great resource, thanks for sharing, goingonit.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:04 AM on April 22, 2021 [14 favorites]

Lomax’s papers may also be of interest, available from the Library of Congress:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/alan-lomax-manuscripts/

Volunteers helped transcribe them using the Library’s crowdsourcing site, which was quite popular last year:

https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/alan-lomax/

(Disclaimer: I helped build crowd.loc.gov but am posting unofficially on my own time)
posted by adamsc at 10:00 AM on April 22, 2021 [12 favorites]

A time machine! Thank you so much for posting this!
posted by zerobyproxy at 10:25 AM on April 22, 2021

I occasionally work on the computers of one of the guys who is doing this. Its so amazingly intimidating to see on the desktop a folder that is labeled lomax and in is hundreds of the raw videos and audio files. While I know they are backed up a million times other places it still feels special
posted by ShawnString at 10:54 AM on April 22, 2021 [8 favorites]

Really great news, post. Ill chime in to plug the place i first learned of these recordings 15 years ago Tangle Eye's Alan Lomax's Southern Journey Remixed (spotify link)
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:55 AM on April 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

Looks fantastic!
posted by bertran at 1:45 PM on April 22, 2021

Thanks so much for this. Among other things there is a gorgeous recording of Sidney Bechet playing Summertime on the Lomax Hootenany show #2. (With the legendary Pops Foster on bass. First recording where I could actually hear Pops - he could play!). Bechet and Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger et al jamming together, too cool.
posted by charlesminus at 8:55 PM on April 22, 2021

Best of the Web!
posted by Rash at 9:50 PM on April 22, 2021

Just wonderful. I had no idea Lomax recorded in other countries besides the US. After wandering among the music tracks for a while I've started on the podcasts - highly recommended.

Thanks heaps for posting, goingonit.
posted by valetta at 10:11 PM on April 22, 2021

this is just so good. thanks!
posted by chavenet at 4:22 AM on April 23, 2021

There's a rather nice graphic novel called Lomax: Collectors of Folk Songs tells the story of Alan Lomax taking over for his father.
posted by Catblack at 9:56 AM on April 23, 2021

If some deity had revealed the internet to convey one purpose, it would be this. THANK YOU.
posted by Scarf Joint at 5:44 PM on April 30, 2021