VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Few figures deserve greater credit for the preservation of America's folk music traditions than Alan Lomax. Scouring the backroads, honky tonks, and work camps of the Deep South, he unearthed a treasure trove of songs and singers, documenting the music of the common man for future generations to discover; through Lomax's pioneering efforts, cultural traditions ranging from the Delta blues to Appalachian folk to field hollers continue to live on, with his invaluable recordings offering a compelling portrait of times and cultures otherwise long gone. The son of noted folklorist John A. Lomax, the nation's preeminent collector of cowboy songs, he was born January 15, 1915 in Austin, Texas; from childhood on he followed in his father's footsteps, assisting in song-gathering missions whenever possible. In 1932, John was contracted to assemble a book of folk songs, and soon he and Alan set out with a crude recording machine paid for by the Library of Congress; covering some 16,000 miles of the southeastern U.S. in just four months, they collected a wealth of African-American work songs, many of them recorded at various penitentiaries. Among the musicians the Lomaxes encountered during their travels that summer was a Louisiana prisoner named Huddie Ledbetter; they helped obtain his release, employing him as a chauffeur and making his first recordings. Ledbetter went on to fame under the name Leadbelly, and remains one of the true legends of American folk and blues. Beginning in 1933 and lasting through to 1942, Alan – working alone as well as in conjunction with his father, writer Zora Neale Hurston, musicologist John Work. and others – recorded folk and traditional music for the Library of Congress throughout the Deep South, as well as in New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, and Ohio. He also recorded in Haiti and the Bahamas, pioneering the archival study of world music which increased in the decades to follow, and in the field made the first-ever recordings of Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, and Aunt Molly Jackson. Concurrently, the Lomaxes teamed on a number of books, including 1934's American Ballads and Folksongs, 1936's Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly, 1937's Cowboy Songs, and 1938's Our Singing Country.

In 1938, Lomax turned to jazz, recording more than eight hours of vocals, instrumentals, and spoken recollections from one of the founders of the form, Jelly Roll Morton. A year later, he premiered "American Folk Songs," a 26-week historical overview broadcast as part of the CBS radio series American School of the Air; Lomax also continued to write and direct special broadcasts promoting the war effort in the months ahead. In 1946, he sat down with Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Big Bill Broonzy to explore the origins and philosophy of the blues, issuing the sessions in 1959 as Blues in the Mississippi Night; he spent the remainder of the decade recording prison songs in the Mississippi area, and in 1948 became host and writer of the Mutual Broadcasting Network series On Top of Old Smokey. In 1950, Lomax relocated to England, where he remained for much of the decade; there he documented the traditional music of the British Isles, with his recordings becoming the basis of the ten-disc 1961 series Folksongs of Great Britain. During the same period, he also made extensive field recordings in Spain and Italy.

Lomax returned to the States in 1959, and immediately made another expedition into the South, where he discovered, among others, bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell. A year later, he published the book Folk Songs of North America; a six-month field trip to the West Indies followed in 1962, and there he recorded traditional musics from the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking people of the Caribbean, as well as the Hindu culture of Trinidad. In 1967, Lomax teamed with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger for the book Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People; Folk Song Style and Culture, the product of his years of world music study, followed in 1968. The advent of new technologies opened up new worlds for Lomax, and in the '70s and '80s he made a series of journeys back to the South to videotape traditional musical performances for the PBS series American Patchwork, completed and broadcast in 1990. At the same time he continued work on the Global Jukebox – an "intelligent museum" interactive software project – and put the finishing touches on 1993's The Land Where the Blues Began, which won a National Book Award. Throughout the '90s and into the 21st century, Rounder Records steadily worked toward reissuing a 100-CD series showcasing Lomax's most legendary field recordings, generating a newfound audience for his scholarly efforts in ethnomusicology. Alan Lomax continued his work lecturing, writing, and working with the Association for Cultural Equity until his death at the age of 87 on the morning of July 19, 2002. Fortunately for archivists and music lovers everywhere, his painstaking documentation of the music and cultures of the world will be educating and enriching the lives of curious listeners for centuries to come.

Biography by Jason Ankeny, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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In the 1930s, John Lomax and his son Alan made field recordings of numerous black Texan folk musicians, often in penitentiaries or on farms. This has 29 performances from 1933-1940, most of them previously unreleased. It reflects various aspects of black Texas repertoire, particularly cowboy songs (Texas had a higher percentage of black cowboys than other regions did), but also some blues, work songs, and tunes identified with the songster and minstrel traditions, performed a cappella or with guitar and harmonica accompaniment. Leadbelly is the only famous name here (with just one track, "Western Cowboy"), and several of the selections are well-known staples of American folk music, like "Jack of Diamonds," "Pick a Bale of Cotton," "Boll Weevil," and "Little Liza Jane." There's a little blues here, notably by Pete Harris, who plays good slide guitar on "Little Liza Jane." But as a whole it, like numerous other pre-World War II recordings, provides evidence that there were fewer boundaries between black and white repertoires than is often supposed. Some of the highlights on this interesting anthology of a sector of vintage American folk music include the a cappella rendition of "My Pretty Little Yellow Gal" (by Lightnin' Washington and group), with its laughing choruses; Butter Boy's "Old Aunt Dinah," a nasal chant that is a distant antecedent of rap; and Ace Johnson's vigorous harmonica on "Rabbit in the Garden."

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Another sub series in Rounder's Alan Lomax collection, these are '30s field recordings documenting African-American life in the Bahamas in the mid '30s. It's a collection of sea chanteys and anthems drawn from field recordings made on Andros and Cat Island. The music made by these "spongers" is both lighthearted and delightful, full of interesting harmonies and interesting composition. What would later turn into commercial calypso has its seeds in this music. Another fascinating chunk of history.

Review by Cub Koda, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Another sub-series in Rounder's Alan Lomax collection, these are field recordings documenting African-American life in the Appalachia chain, from the Blue Ridge mountains to the hill country of Northeast Mississippi. It's music that spans from string bands to blues solos and hoedowns to songsters. Performers aboard this collection (recordings made by Lomax between 1933 and 1946) include Leadbelly, Jimmie Strothers, Sid Hemphill, the Nashville Washboard Band and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. Highlights include "Cripple Creek," "Skillet Good and Greasy," "The Red Cross Store," "How Long" and a five-minute-plus rendition of "Arkansas Traveler." Like other volumes in the series, this sheds some serious light on a chunk of American history not often documented.

Review by Cub Koda, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Recorded by Alan and John Lomax during the late '30s and early '40s, this volume in the Deep River of Song series focuses on work songs, ballads, spirituals, blues shouts, and all kinds of story songs. A companion volume to Deep River of Song: The Blues Lineage, which presented field recordings by Son House, Muddy Waters, and many other Delta bluesmen, Saints & Sinners presents a good look at the musical climate of rural Mississippi during the early 20th century. Listeners are given an ample view of the atmosphere of the times, which was much closer to the days of slavery than many blues fans realize. The names known best to Delta aficionados are Sid Hemphill and Dobie Red, though much of the best material comes from the many contributors who never made it to a studio; Alec Askew, Crap Eye, Rev. C.H. Savage, Henry Joiner and Deacon Tom Jones are just a few of the mysterious names whose sparse recordings lend a ghostly air to the proceedings. For those captivated by the mystery of many selections from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Saints & Sinners is a vital addition to their library.

Review by Earl Simmons, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Sixteen country-blues cuts, recorded between 1936 and 1942 by folklorists Alan and John A. Lomax for the Library of Congress at plantations, penitentiaries, tourist camps, and elsewhere (actually the two songs by William Brown were done near Mississippi, in Arkansas). Deep River of Song: Mississippi - The Blues Lineage is a more pleasurable compilation than most folk field recordings of the era are (whether by the Lomaxes or others), due to the tight and focused performances. A couple of the names will be familiar to any blues fan (and to some non-blues fans). Muddy Waters, then playing acoustic Delta blues as McKinley Morganfield, contributes "I Be Bound to Write to You" and "You Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone"; Son House, about to disappear from the public eye for a couple of decades, does four songs, including his famous "Walking Blues" (which is six minutes here, with accompaniment from other musicians on mandolin, guitar, and harmonica). Most of the tracks are entertaining and academically important, as well as illustrative of some differences in Mississippi blues styles. Some of these are blues that are more upbeat than the Delta stereotype, as in David "Honeyboy" Edwards' "Wind Howlin' Blues" and Lucious Curtis (who never recorded before or after his 1940 recordings on this disc), whose sharp guitar picking has some ragtime and boogie flavor.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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All 20 of these a cappella performances were recorded in Texas prisons in 1933 and 1934 by John Lomax and Alan Lomax; it's titled "Big Brazos" because almost all Texas prisons were large farms along the bottomlands of the Brazos and Trinity rivers. Unless you're a professional folklorist, you'd be hard-pressed to identify a specifically regional "Texas" sound to the prison song. Like numerous other field recordings of prison songs (or, indeed, some recordings of work songs by non-prisoners) from this time, it's often characterized by rhythmic chant-like group singing suitable for cutting trees or slower call-and-response numbers that are close to gospel and spirituals. This is better than some such archival collections because there is a variety of singers represented: about a half-dozen lead singers, sometimes singing by themselves or in pairs, more often singing with groups. These are non-professional vocalists, but they, or certainly the ones chosen for this disc, are good, strong ones, not at all the kind that you grit your teeth to listen to in the conviction that because it's authentic, it must be worth your time. As far as things in the repertoire that might be familiar to those not steeped in this idiom, there are versions of "Black Betty" and "Stewball." If you're looking for a vague possible influence on pop music, part of the chorus of "Drop Old Diamond" sounds rather like the "oh, those lonely weekends" hook of Charlie Rich's "Lonely Weekends." The sound, remastered to 20-bit digital from original metal and acetate field recordings, is about as good as it's going to get for this sort of thing, but be aware that there's still some hiss and whine, and quite a lot on some tracks.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Deep River of Song: Virgina and the Piedmont collects Alan Lomax field recordings of descendents of Virginia slaves and songs from the racially diverse Piedmont region, where free African-Americans and whites often played music together. Tracks such as Jimmie Strothers' "I Used to Work on a Tractor," James Wilson's "Walk Down, Devils," Robert Higgins' "Prison Blues," and Willie Williams' "Boll Weevil" trace the development of African-American music, including work songs, spirituals, minstrel tunes, and acoustic blues from the antebellum era to the 20th century. The album also features digital remastering and thorough liner notes, reflecting the care put into the entire series of Lomax recordings.

Review by Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Deep River of Song: Georgia is another entry in the series of Southern and Caribbean field recordings completed by Alan & John A. Lomax during the '30s and '40s. This disc contains 22 songs, including blues and group singing, performed by singers known and unknown. Four songs are sung and played by Blind Willie McTell, and they are highlights of this recording. "Boll Weevil" and "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" feature McTell's laid-back, soulful vocals and some nice guitar work. He adds a spiritual twist and a little slide work on "Just as Well Get Ready, You Got to Die" and "I Got to Cross the River Jordan." A number of songs, including "Captain Haney Blues" and "Longest Trail I Ever Saw," are performed by groups of male singers. These vibrant songs are easily accessible, with lively presentation and memorable melodies, making them a good entry place for those unfamiliar with field recordings. Robert Davis delivers the blues guitar instrumental, "Poor Joe Breakdown," complete with foot-stomping, and one shouldn't miss the harmonica playing of Buster Brown on "I'm Gonna Make You Happy." The liner notes are extensive and well-written, and there is a nice introductory essay by Dr. David Evans. While this album certainly has a historical value, it is also enjoyable and easy to recommend to anyone with a passing interest in field recordings. Beware though. Listening to this album will only lead one to pick up the other wonderful titles in Rounder's Deep River of Song series.

Review by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Recorded between 1934-1940 by folklorist John Lomax, this offers an interesting cross-section of songs sung by "real" people in Alabama. And a cross-section it really is, from blues to spirituals to lullabies to work songs. It's a collection that introduces a voice that should have become well-known – Vera Ward Hall, who opens the set with a startlingly pure "Another Man Done Gone" and keeps cropping up throughout. While the emphasis is on song, there's also some wonderful harmonica playing on "Train on a Hill" by Richard Amerson (who also reminisces about his days on steamboats), and Tom Bell accompanies himself on guitar on "Worried Blues." Perhaps the most intriguing piece is "Billy Goat Latin" from Joe F. Williams & Booker T. Williams, a bizarre field holler. All the way through, material that's become quite familiar over the years pops up in its folk roots – "Honey, Take a Whiff on Me," "Hush Little Baby," "Alabama Bound," and "Go to Sleep (Little Baby)" – all of which have become part of the national consciousness. Lomax proves to be as able as his son in finding great performers (although you have to wonder when he asks one to take a song into double time, obviously a first-time occurrence for the subject of this particular recording). By its very nature – field recordings from the 1930s – the sound quality is sometimes far from perfect, but overall the remastering is little short of miraculous, and the sleeve notes are thorough and extremely informative.

Review by Chris Nickson, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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With the impressive girth of Alan Lomax's collection of field recordings and the immediate accessibility of so many of these recordings, choosing a single disc to satiate those curious of the historical significance of Lomax's recordings is near impossible. Deep River of Song: Louisiana - Catch That Train might not be the most logical place to start unless the listener is interested particularly in the unique music of Louisiana, but there are some very important documents here in the context of folk music, most notably the interview with Jelly Roll Morton at the end of the collection. Many of the tracks here are absolutely ferocious and upbeat a cappella ring shouts, but some early zydeco also appears here, as well as early Leadbelly recordings and musical contributions by Morton. What Lomax caught on tape over his long career of traveling is absolutely unbelievable, and Deep River of Song: Louisiana - Catch That Train is certainly no exception – a priceless window into a time when music was a way of life, a style of communication, a working man's companion, and a celebratory, interactive way to pass the time.

Review by Gregory McIntosh, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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John Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Ruby Lomax made numerous aluminum and acetate disc recordings in the Gullah enclave of South Carolina's Murrells Inlet between 1934 and 1939, where a distinct tradition of unaccompanied spirituals and work songs was still predominant. The fragments collected weren't gospel, but real spirituals, and they frequently sound not only measured but also gently mournful, resigned as much as they are cautiously invested in the prospect of a better world beyond this one. There are surprisingly (or maybe not) only semantic differences and few melodic ones between the straight spirituals and the work songs, and in the right hands, one could pass for the other. Both forms, it would seem, deal in the possibility of redemption, and both use roads, trains, and in some cases, chariots as metaphoric transformational vehicles. This haunting, understated set is fleshed out by the addition of similarly themed field recordings done at Reid State Farm, a South Carolina prison, where the concept of a better world awaiting and the prospect of eventual redemption were undoubtedly taken quite literally. With the contents really all of a piece, it is difficult to single out individual tracks here, but "Leprosy (Nicodemus)," sung byZack Knox, "Got the Keys to the Kingdom," sung by Lillie Knox, and "Ain't But the One Train Run This Track (All Night Long)," sung by D.W. White & the Pearson's Funeral Home Choir, are particularly poignant.

Review by Steve Leggett, Allmusic.com

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VA - Deep River of Song: The Alan Lomax Collection (1999-2004) 12CDs

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Deep River of Song: Bahamas 1935, Vol. 2 - Ring Games and Round Dances gathers more remastered field recordings from Alan Lomax's Caribbean travels. The ring game songs feature singing with handclapping and drums, while the round dances are performed by a string band; all of the songs, including "The Devil Roll Like Thunder," "Bimini Gal," "Sand Gone in My Cuckoo-Eye," and "Sailin' in the Boat," exemplify the playful melodies and rhythms of indigenous Caribbean music.

Review by Heather Phares, Allmusic.com