#Alan Lomax

[woundgallery]

#bessie jones #alan lomax #music #folk music #Spotify

[oblivionrecords]

Fred McDowell: The farmer who emerged from the woods and made a masterpiece

I thought it might be good for newbies to Mississippi Fred McDowell –like I was when I recorded “Live in New York”– to find out about where Fred came from, recording wise. This article in the UK webzine, Far Out, lays it out pretty well. You might want to dig deeper into folklorist Alan Lomax, but more importantly, you'll get a glimpse of the ambition that drove Fred from a Mississippi farm to his well deserved worldwide acclaim. -Fred Seibert.

By Tom Taylor @tomtaylorfo Far Out Magazine   Sat 18 November 2023 22:00, UK

Some blues players can get their guitars to tell a story; Fred McDowell could get his to sing an opera akin to a southern Les Mis. “With Fred McDowell, I just love the way he articulates the notes,” fellow blues guitarist Bill Orcutt explains. “I’m hardly unique in that, but there’s just something about that that I love.” He’s not alone in that love either; everyone from Keith Richards to Bonnie Raitt have cited him as a star that they have attempted to emulate.

However, the one element nobody could ever copy was the humble backstory that brought him to the world. Long before he earned the prefix of Mississippi and became a big attraction at juke joints, got swamped backstage at folk festivals, or had his track covered by The Rolling Stones, he was just strumming away to an audience of nearby wildlife on his porch after a long day at work. Occasionally, he’d find himself in a situation where someone might toss him some loose change, but any notion of fame seemed unfamiliar.

But his skills were profound all the same, and fate would drag him towards another American numen on his travels. Alan Lomax was a roving ethnomusicologist, which is a big word for a curious fellow with a portable recording device that could capture the nation’s true folk on the move. One day, during Lomax and Shirley Collins’ great Southern Journey expedition, they rocked up in Como, Mississippi. They were intent on capturing the music at a local dance and the Young brothers’ fife and drum ensemble.

It was 1959, and McDowell was a 54-year-old wondering what his legacy would be beyond the farm he kept. So, without much fanfare and no warning, he decided to pick up his guitar, weave his way through the local woods, and rock up at Lonnie Young’s porch, where the recording was said to be taking place. Lomax and Collins lent him their ears, hit record, and old McDowell began to play.

Half a century later, if you close your eyes while listening to the masterpiece now known as The Alan Lomax Recordings, you can almost see the overalled maestro on the creaking porch ahead of you, hear the rustle of the southern breeze through the lowering tupelo trees, and smell the dancehalls buffer in the air. Of course, some of that is due to the suggestion of the cover art on the Mississippi Records pressing, but what I’m trying to convey is the dogeared sincerity that renders this authentic tape so beguiling.

Even at the time, Lomax and Collins were so flummoxed by the humility and skill of this unknown farmer that they quickly whisked their tapes off to a blues label, and in his autumn years, McDowell became an internationally renowned star, typifying what was best about the blues when the revival movement had somewhat muddied the waters — he was the new (old) find that the kids were craving.

He would soon rub shoulders with the next generation, teaching Raitt how to play slide guitar, touring with the likes of Big Mama Thornton and John Lee Hooker, and embracing the flattery of being covered by rockers despite declaring himself that he did not play rock ‘n’ roll. He left the farm behind and enjoyed a good 13 years of fame until his death in 1972, aged 68, but his old porch was never truly that far from his artistic thoughts, so even beyond the masterful Lomax Recordings, he’s the bluesman who can capture the earthiness of the South with more verity than anyone.

#OD1 #Mississippi Fred McDowell #Alan Lomax #The Alan Lomax Recordings #1959 #Fred McDowell

[tri-ciclo]

Alan Lomax Baptism near Minnesota, Texas, 1935

#minnesota #alan lomax #1935

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Playing

Alan Lomax POPULAR SONGBOOK Field Recordings 1933-1959

#currently playing #Alan Lomax #Americana #American Roots #2003 #1933 #historical recordings

[playypause]

#np Aunt Molly Jackson - Roll On Buddy (1939)

#Aunt Molly Jackson #np #audio #blues #1939 #Alan Lomax

[beatleshistoryblog]

LECTURE 13: THE STONES: Muddy Waters (1913-1983) enjoyed a huge and devoted following in the UK, and he had an enormous influence on the formation of a blues scene in London in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Muddy came from Mississippi, and counted among his early influences such Blues pioneers as Son House and Robert Johnson. Thanks to musicologist Alan Lomax, the American Library of Congress recorded Muddy in 1941 and preserved the recordings in a pristine state, which inspired Muddy to pursue a music career. A few years later, he moved to Chicago, bought an electric guitar, signed a contract with Chess, and the rest – as they say – is history.  This promo film is lots of fun because it shows Muddy at a railroad depot in Manchester, England, in 1964. Muddy would perform in Great Britain many times. His first visit there in 1958 introduced amplified electric blues to the British people, and they loved it. 

#Muddy Waters #Blues #Great Britain #1960s #Electric Blues #Son House #Robert Johnson #Alan Lomax #Library of Congress #Chess Records #Manchester

[heidismagblog]

#spin #spin magazine #reviews #alan lomax #jawbox #david bowie #morrissey #dap kings #alan lomax in haiti #orchestre poly-rythmo de cotonou #shakira #snoop doggy dogg #sufjan stevens #the temper trap #thao with the get down stay down #tiesto #tinariwan #ouled bambara #via tania #wheedles groove #ad #corona #the wildhearts #robbie williams #white denim #the xx #norton #kia #levis #energizer

[travsd]

Love for the Lomax Legacy

Lovers of American folk music know and revere the name of Lomax. For over a century and four generations this family has devoted itself to the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of the People’s Voice. It began with John A. Lomax (1867-1948). Raised on a Texas farm, with roots in Mississippi and North Carolina, Lomax brought the farm ethic of dawn-to-dusk hard work to the project of…

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#Alan Lomax #American Folks Music #archive #author #Bess Lomax #collector #folk #John Lomax #Library of Congress #producer

[dyingforbadmusic]

Alan Lomax for the Southern Folk Heritage Series

Estil C. Ball, Lacey Richardson, Orna Ball & Blair Reedy - The Cabin On The Hill

#hill music #Virginia #Alan lomax

[rudysassafras]

Brother John said

In the chapter 14

If a man lives

Let his sin be seen.

— long john (old chain gang song)

#alan lomax #martin scorsese #blues music #spirituality #symbolism #chain gang #martin scorsese presents the blues

[daveydoodle]

Watch "Old Alabama" on YouTube

❤️ 🎶 NowPlaying on KRVS 🎶 ❤️

#music #alan lomax #old alabama #krvs #good morning #Youtube

[history105rockandrollblog]

Lecture 2: Please listen to these historic field recordings of Muddy Waters (1913-1983), made in 1941 and 1942. Pioneering musicologist, folklorist and archivist Alan Lomax (1915-2002) recorded these songs as part of an extensive effort by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to capture and document folk music, which included Blues. This particular record includes a compelling Q&A with Muddy, in which he refers to such Blues legends as Robert Johnson and Son House.

To quote AllMusic’s review by Cub Koda;

At long last, Muddy’s historic 1941-1942 Library of Congress field recordings are all collected in one place, with the best fidelity that’s been heard thus far. Waters performs solo pieces (you can hear his slide rattling against the fretboard in spots) and band pieces with the Son Sims Four, “Rosalie” being a virtual blueprint for his later Chicago style. Of particular note are the inclusion of several interview segments with Muddy from that embryonic period and a photo of Muddy playing on the porch of his cabin, dressed up and looking sharper than any Mississippi sharecropper on Stovall’s plantation you could possibly imagine. This much more than just an important historical document; this is some really fine music imbued with a sense of place, time and loads of ambience.” (Cub Koda, AllMusic.com)

#Muddy Waters #Blues #Delta Blues #Alan Lomax #Library of Congress #Washington D.C. #Robert Johnson #Son House #Mississippi #1940s

[theejaculationofserpents]

Alan Lomax, Cl. Marcel-Dubois, Maguy Andral – France

#alan lomax

[henry-harrison-mayes]

Sounds of Middlesboro, KY and around

Around the same times, Henry Harrison Mayes was active, Alan Lomax traveled through Appalachia and recorded the music of the people there and the people themselves. Some recordings were released on Folkways, like When Kentucky Had No Union Men by George Davis others ended up on compilations and even better, all of Lomax Kentucky field recordings are documented online and available as stream.

Audio Archives and Information

Recordings from Middlesboro, 1937 on archive.org

All Lomax Kentucky recordings 1933 - 1947

Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings Project

Kentucky 1933 | Lomax Digital Archive

Kentucky 1937 | Lomax Digital Archive

Kentucky 1938 | Lomax Digital Archive

#Kentuck #music #audio #alan lomax

[filosofablogger]

♫ The House Of The Rising Sun ♫ (Redux)

This makes the fourth time I’ve played this one here, but it remains a popular one, and it’s been nearly two years, so … here we go again!  This one’s for you, rawgod! According to Wikipedia … Like many classic folk ballads, ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ is of uncertain authorship. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads, and thematically it has some resemblance…

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#Alan Lomax #Bob Dylan #Eric Burdon #Glenn Yarbrough #Joan Baez #John Steel #music trivia #The Animals #Woody Guthrie

[beatleshistoryblog]

LECTURE 4: INFLUENCES (PART 1): Lonnie Donegan’s “Rock Island Line” (1954) launched the British Skiffle Craze that lasted from roughly 1954 to 1959. The craze reached its peak in 1957-58, when some 30,000 Skiffle bands existed throughout the UK. The song “Rock Island Line” was originally written by African-American songwriter Clarence Wilson (based on an old spiritual hymn) and first performed by prisoners in Arkansas in 1934 (and recorded by legendary musicologist Alan Lomax).   Next came a recording by Blues/Folk political balladeer/singer LEAD BELLY (Huddie William Ledbetter). Finally, Lonnie Donegan’s version became the most famous, thanks to the massive Skiffle movement it inspired. Donegan played in several jazz bands before becoming a Skiffle superstar. He loved American Blues and Folk music, and took the name “Lonnie” from Blues great Lonnie Johnson (Donegan’s real name was Anthony James Donegan, and he lived from 1931 to 2002).

#Lonnie Donegan #skiffle #Lead Belly #Alan Lomax #Blues #Clarence Wilson #British skiffle craze #Rock Island Line #1950s #1960s #American music #Folk music