Country Blues > Down the Dirt Road
Gems from the Lomax collection
uncle bud:
I've been exploring various Alan Lomax recordings lately, listening to material I may have passed over too quickly previously, or haven't heard before. It's unfortunate that a fair amount of the material from the Deep River of Song series and the Southern Journey series seems to be becoming increasingly unavailable. So for those who don't have access to the material already on LP or CD this thread may prove an exercise in frustration. Although there are a number of volumes in both series that seem to be kicking around still.
Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread where people might mention any favorites, gems, hidden treasures from the Lomax collection, in print or out.
I've been listening to Southern Journey Volume 3, 61 Highway Mississippi lately and it is an excellent collection of field recordings made in 1959. In addition to the Sid Hemphill/Lucius Smith song "Emmaline, Take Your Time" I mentioned in the quills thread, it has a slew of great material, including some prison and work songs, some really fabulous church songs, as well as material by Fred McDowell, and John Dudley, who does one of the closest takes on Charley Patton I've heard.
Two songs in particular I've been going back to though are by Bob and Miles Pratcher. The Pratchers were from Como, Mississippi, and Miles shows up on a few McDowell recordings, but here he plays guitar and sings with Bob on fiddle. Only two songs are included, "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow 'Till I Die" and "If It's All Night Long". This is infectious dance style material, a preblues or proto blues kind of music, and reminds me a good deal of Butch Cage and Willie Thomas. I've only found reference to six recordings of the Pratchers as a fiddle/guitar duo made by Lomax, with 2 or 3 others - "Joe Turner", "Buttermilk - appearing elsewhere.
Anyone have any gems from the Lomax collection?
jostber:
Thanks for this input on the Lomax series. Have not heard those cuts. I have invested in some his italian series, pretty great stuff too!
http://www.amazon.com/Italian-Treasury-Folk-Music-Italy/dp/B00000J2R5
http://www.abconcerts.be/en/alan-lomax-the-italian-treasure-trove-mim
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/lomax.html
jostber:
Is this his complete discography?
http://culturalequity.org/alanlomax/ce_alanlomax_discography.php
oddenda:
If Alan did it, it's probably worth your attention! He may have been an individual that got up peoples' noses, but as a field "recordist" he was unbeatable. It all depends on your preferences, and the "bigness" of your ears. Just ask Roswell Rudd, for one! Or me!!
Peter B.
davek:
I have Southern Journey Volume 3, 61 Highway Mississippi and it is great.
I also have Southern Journey Volume 1, Voices from the American South which is mostly white performers, Appalachia I would call it. It too is quite good.
I can't name faves from either, I am revisiting both because of your post. Thanks for the reminder! From Vol 1 what really caught my ear was Pretty Polly by Estil Ball. It is sung in a style similar to Doc Watson, and nicely fingerpicked, using some unusual bass line patterns. The guitar is beautifully recorded. Playing in D, maybe drop D or open D, but I think it is more playable in standard for me. I don't hear the low D in the recording. The song is modal, so the guitar rarely leaves D. For me this is wild and instructive, because the vocal clearly moves to the IV chord.
Jostber, I don't think that link is complete because it doesn't list the same names of the Southern Journey volumes. Maybe the same material got recombined for the CD era? I think the link is only concerned with vinyl.
Dave
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