A Trip Through Alan Lomax’s Online Archives

Alan Lomax was one of the world's foremost historians of American folk music in the 20th century. Son of folklorist John Lomax, he spent his life collecting field recordings, researching folklore in various cultures, producing concerts and events, and promoting the idea of cultural equity within the folklore community. In 2004, all of Lomax's archives were acquired by the Library of Congress. The massive archives include 6,400 sound recordings, 5,500 still images, and 6,000 moving images, as well as 25,000 pages from Lomax's office files. His work spans multiple continents and decades, and is one of the most comprehensive resources for folk culture available. 

With that level of research available to the public, many historians and hobbyists have put together their own Lomax-centric projects, including Joshua Clegg Caffery's John and Alan Lomax in Louisiana, 1934 — an in-depth journey into the father/son duo's studies of lower Louisiana housed at Lomax1934.com.

There are also the Library of Congress Alan Lomax Collection, which is available online for free; the Alan Lomax YouTube archives; and the Association for Cultural Equity's archives of Lomax's sound recordings to dig into. Not sure where to start? We've picked out some highlights to help you get started on your journey through the archives. 

Lead Belly Memorial Concert Poster, 1950

Sheet Music from the Carribean Folk Song Project, 1965

Performers in Louisiana, 1934, via Lomax1934.com

Transcript, Woody Guthrie CBS Performance, 1940-41

Belton Sutherland, Blues #1

1982 Holly Springs Sacred Harp Convention


Photos coutesy of The U.S. Library of Congress

WATCH: David Ramirez, ‘Harder to Lie’

Even taking all 260,000 of the miles tracked and traveled by David Ramirez's 2006 Kia Rio, there were still some journeys left unaccounted for — the inner explorations he undertook while driving all that way … alone. What he realized, at the end of the road, was that he needed to do some things differently.

Three years and one writer's block later, Ramirez has emerged with Fables. Produced by Seattle singer/songwriter Noah Gundersen, it's a tale of the reckoning Ramirez went through with himself and with his girlfriend. The open-aired and open-armed production gives Ramirez's baritone voice room to roam through the songs.

The title of the set comes from “Harder to Lie.” While on vacation in Iceland, Ramirez and company were on the look out for the just-right visual setting to capture the song. They found it in Skaftafell, a preservation area in southeast Iceland.

"When my lady, our friend Clayton, and I began talking about a potential Iceland vacation, one of the first things we discussed was filming a song,” Ramirez says. “From the minute we left Reykjavik, our eyes were peeled for the perfect location. Funny thing about Iceland: Every location is perfect. One evening we crossed a long bridge that hung over a moon-like terrain. In the background were two giant, green mountains and sandwiched between them was a glacier. We pulled over at the next exit, set up camp for the night, and filmed 'Harder to Lie' the next morning. It's a one-shot, one-take video, and it took us three takes to get it just right. Hats off to Clayton Stringer for filming barefoot on black stones in 10 degrees celsius to keep the sound pure. He's a champ."

Fables drop on August 28 via Thirty Tigers.

LISTEN: Matt Hectorne, ‘Animal’

There's a small town in DeSoto County in Mississippi called Hernando. Even though it counts not even 15,000 people among its population, some of the folks who have emerged from its rank have made marks on music — singer/songwriter Garrison Starr; Johnny Cash's bass player, Marshall Grant; and blues men like Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and Robert Wilkins.

The latest artistic emergence from Hernando is Matt Hectorne. Born in Memphis, Hectorne grew up in Hernando cutting his teeth on the songwriting of Tom Petty, John Prine, and Bobby Charles. He made his debut a few years back with 2012's Your Light My Dark and has since put many a mile on his guitar. His upcoming Days While Away release sums up the stories hard-earned from a life on the road and in the flesh.

Hectorne says of this cut, “'Animal' is a song written at the point in a relationship when you realize you can't make someone love you back and that it's probably better to just go your separate ways. Since this was written years after the end of that relationship, it's more like me looking back and giving advice to my younger self: Love isn't always enough; love is more than mere affection.”

Days While Away is out September 18 on Hem & Haw Recordings.