As I oftern say, here I don't keep up with current musicology, so I know little about John Szwed's work but can say that I took a course from him (at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) in 1970 or 1971 (or maybe 1972) and wrote a paper on Huddie Leadbetter for which I rec'd a good mark. I doubt if the paper was really good--though it was much more detailed than most writing on rural African American musicians that I had read at that time (and I'd read a good deal of what was then published)--but neglected--youth--to keep a copy of same, so have been able to think of it without criticism, in the pristine land of memory only.
As to Lomax, while I have always very much appreciated some aspects of him, I have for a long time not felt very good about other aspects of his career.
