# Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

For all you folkies out there - Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online - story here and archive here.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Quite the treasure trove! Thanks for the news/links, Taggart.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

Thanks for the heads up. A great resource. Lomax did a monumental job with his field recordings.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Thank you for this information. 

I think he will sadly always be underappreciated except by a few. I've heard him compared to the great Victorian Plant hunters who brought back species from the wilds of the world to Kew Gardens etc. They will be remembered by posterity as their names got attached to those plants. e.g. Vietch and Tradescant. 

Their currency ware the New and Unusual. In contrast Lomax (and our own Cecil Sharp) listened to what was around them and saw it disappearing and self funded it's preservation. Just for one example, what would modern music be like if his discoveries hadn't helped flame the 60's blues movement in GB&I. No Clapton, Stones or Led Zeppelin. It's a shame they didn't' pitch in earlier. 

He left the world a richer place than he found it. Can't say fairer than that.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Belowpar said:


> Thank you for this information.
> <snip>
> 
> Their currency ware the New and Unusual. In contrast Lomax (and our own Cecil Sharp) listened to what was around them and saw it disappearing and self funded it's preservation. Just for one example, what would modern music be like if his discoveries hadn't helped flame the 60's blues movement in GB&I. No Clapton, Stones or Led Zeppelin. It's a shame they didn't' pitch in earlier.
> ...


Umm Lomax had a lot of funding from the Library of Congress up until 1942. The big discovery was Leadbelly and the story of his relationship with John Lomax is ... interesting.

The biography by John Szwed - The Man who Recorded the World is a good read.

Still, anybody who gave a job to both Pete Seeger and June Tabor can't be all bad!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Alan Lomax recorded some excellent flamenco, especially on the street during local gatherings, in Andalusia in the early 1950s, all the while being followed and hounded by Franco's minions. Much of it is in the archive, other is captured on some LPs. Among my prized flamenco recordings made by Lomax is a wonderful _saeta_, probably recorded in Seville during Holy Week, and also a classic _malagueña_, unaccompanied except for a walking stick striking the floor.


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