WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:03.759 Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and today 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:06.759 I will be reading from the special edition of Smithsonian 3 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:12.000 Magazine America at two fifty the Revolutionary Spark. As a reminder, 4 00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:14.800 Radio Eye is a reading service intended for people who 5 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:17.920 are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult 6 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:21.679 to read printed material. Please join me now for part 7 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:26.440 one of Alan Lomax spent years traveling the country to 8 00:00:26.519 --> 00:00:30.079 record the sounds of America. The legacy of his obsession 9 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:33.840 will live forever. By letting Muddy Waters hear himself for 10 00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:37.399 the first time, he unlocked a new confidence that set 11 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:40.719 the sharecropper on the path to superstardom. And that's just 12 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:43.640 the start of what he found in churches, prisons, and 13 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:51.159 even lumberjack camps by Chris Heath, One, Mississippi, a prequel. 14 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:54.600 On a small grass covered plot next to a quiet 15 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:58.840 country road a few miles northwest of Clarksdale, Mississippi, stands 16 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:04.280 a plaque identifying Muddy Waters House. The Blues pioneer lived 17 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:06.560 most of his first thirty years at a house on 18 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:10.840 this site. It proclaims the third sentence of for in total. 19 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:15.000 Further notes, quote Muddy Waters was first recorded here in 20 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:19.120 nineteen forty one by Alan Lomax, who was compiling songs 21 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.879 for the Library of Congress. That was the kind of 22 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:27.480 thing Alan Lomax did. In August nineteen forty one, Lomax 23 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.640 was traveling across northern Mississippi with some companions, busy doing 24 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.239 the work that would make him the twentieth century's most 25 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:39.599 famous musical folklorist, searching out and capturing for posterity the rich, 26 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:44.000 wild undiscovered diversity of expression through music and song to 27 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.920 be found across this country. When his inquiries brought him 28 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:51.879 to this house on the primarily cotton growing Stoveall Plantation. 29 00:01:52.439 --> 00:01:55.680 The house's twenty eight year old occupant, whose real name 30 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:00.799 was McKinley Morganfield, though he also went by Muddy Water 31 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:04.040 the s would come later, earned his living driving a 32 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.879 tractor with a sideline bootlegging Ditchbank whisky. He had a 33 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:12.319 solid local reputation as a fine singer and guitarist, but 34 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:16.719 no prospective full time career in music. After Waters agreed 35 00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:19.719 to perform some songs in his front room as requested, 36 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:23.439 Lomax played back the recording captured on the sixteen inch 37 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.080 discs of a Presto recording machine there and then. Waters 38 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:30.960 had never heard himself sing, and he would later explain 39 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.919 how hearing himself as he'd heard other musicians on the 40 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:38.319 local jukebox changed something. Man, he reflected, you don't know 41 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:41.000 how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that 42 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:44.280 voice and it was my own voice. Though nearly two 43 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:47.120 years would pass before Waters could quit his job and 44 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.400 head north to Chicago, this was when the seed was sown. 45 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:53.319 I can do it, he told himself. I can do it. 46 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:57.719 For Waters, it was a pivotal moment for Lomax. No 47 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:00.960 matter the historical resonance this encounter would come to have, 48 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:06.120 it was one more satisfactorily productive Saturday afternoon. By the 49 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:09.840 next morning, Lomax and his co workers would be recording 50 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:13.280 a baptism service at Calvary Baptist Church in the town 51 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:17.039 of Money. Later on, they'd capture songs of the evening 52 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:19.560 service at the Church of God in Christ at the 53 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:23.479 Mohead Plantation near Lulah. Sunday would be at least as 54 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:28.400 typical of what Lomax did as Saturday. In hindsight, Lomax 55 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.360 is sometimes spoken of as though he was some kind 56 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:35.199 of supremely successful talent scout, but although he would play 57 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:39.639 significant roles in many careers, including some celebrated ones. In 58 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:42.439 addition to Waters, he was involved in one way or 59 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.800 another with Woody guf Three Lead Belly, Jelly Row Morton, 60 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:49.960 Pete seeger Son House Aunt, Molly Jackson, and Mississippi Fred 61 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:54.159 mc dowell his core aim and priority as he explored America, 62 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:58.719 recording equipment at the ready with something else. Entirely, no 63 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:02.199 single magazine art could convey the full range of what 64 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:07.039 he recorded. A partial online database of documentation relating to 65 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:11.639 Lomax's field work runs to nearly twelve thousand pages, but 66 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.199 this story, by focusing on three contrasting geographical areas and 67 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:18.680 what he found in each place, and the ways in 68 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:21.800 which what he recorded there has or has not echoed 69 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:24.839 down the years, hopes to give a deeper sense of 70 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:29.399 his true achievement. The first locust is in and around 71 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:33.800 the Mississippi Delta fertile musical territory, where Lomax at times 72 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:37.560 did unearth and record the kind of blues pioneers he 73 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:42.120 is often associated with. Tellingly, he also did plenty else there. 74 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.839 The second is a small region of coastal Georgia where 75 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:48.800 Lomax first went song collecting at the age of twenty, 76 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:52.800 then returned many years later. The third is the area 77 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:56.319 of the Upper Midwest, leading up from industrial Michigan to 78 00:04:56.439 --> 00:04:59.800 isolated islands of the Great Lakes, where Lomax found in 79 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:03.839 a colectic repertoire in a land of lumberjacks and sailors 80 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:08.439 and many different communities from the European diaspora on occasion. 81 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:12.319 What Lomax discovered quickly made its way into public consciousness, 82 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.319 but far from everything that he recorded became famous. Some 83 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:20.680 recordings have resonated more deeply as time has passed, Others 84 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:25.000 have resurfaced long afterward in unlikely ways, and much of 85 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.319 what he collected is still little known. Maybe that is 86 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:31.959 central to his achievement. Less the few choice moments that 87 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:34.839 quickly rose up and caught the bright sunlight, than the 88 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:38.480 deep and wide reservoir of song, in its full variety 89 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:43.959 of human expression, that is preserved for all time for historians, musicologists, 90 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:47.519 and any one else curious enough to examine and discover 91 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:52.120 at their leisure. That same year he first met Muddy Waters, 92 00:05:52.279 --> 00:05:56.040 nineteen forty one, Lomax gave an interview to the Washington 93 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:59.759 Times Herald, which characterized him as quote the boy who 94 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:05.000 today days America's leading authority on balladiies. Quote. Lomax was 95 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:09.319 then twenty six years old, presumably invited to offer the 96 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:13.000 wider rationale for what he was doing. He posited that 97 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:16.319 America had the world's greatest wealth of songs because of 98 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:20.560 all the cultures colliding and concanatenating here, and he gave 99 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:24.560 a sense of his mission. Quote, you learned what Americans 100 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:27.720 have felt in their biggest moments of happiness and despair, 101 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:31.040 he said. You realize for the very first time what 102 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.519 the true history of this great country is, what America 103 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:39.160 actually stands for. In the future, these records will be invaluable, 104 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:45.160 and I am going to keep on collecting two beforehand 105 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.879 and probably for someone who is rightly regarded as making 106 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:53.040 such a singular mark on the world. When Alan Lomax 107 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:57.160 began collecting songs, he was actually going into the family business. 108 00:06:57.879 --> 00:07:01.720 In nineteen o six, his father Lomax, a member of 109 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:05.279 Texas A and M's English faculty, took a year's leave 110 00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:08.839 of absence from teaching to attend graduate school at Harvard, 111 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:12.759 where he was encouraged to formalize a childhood passion for 112 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:15.800 the cowboy songs he'd heard growing up in rural Texas. 113 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:21.079 To find examples, the elder Lomax wrote to newspapers across America, 114 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.160 asking them to print his appeal for unpublished songs handed 115 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:28.759 down through the oral tradition. Quote. They deal mainly with 116 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:34.560 frontier experiences, attempts, often crude and sometimes vulgar, to epitomize 117 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:38.319 and particularize the life of the pioneers who peopled the 118 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:42.680 vast region west of the Mississippi River. He wished, he 119 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:46.240 went on, quote to solicit your aid and preserving from 120 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:52.240 extinction this expression of American literature. End quote. In nineteen ten, 121 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.680 the results appeared in a book, Cowboy Songs and Other 122 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:59.680 Frontier Ballads, showing the same aim for the sky determination 123 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:04.199 that his son Alan would later exude. John Lomax managed 124 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:08.160 to persuade Theodore Roosevelt to provide the book's two page 125 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:13.240 handwritten introduction, something Lomax achieved by turning up at Roosevelt's 126 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:16.519 hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they were both in town 127 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.000 for a Frontier Day's celebration, and asking to see the 128 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:23.800 former president. The words Roosevelt wrote for him on the 129 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:28.160 spot spoke of song collecting as safeguarding a vanishing resource. 130 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:32.799 Quote it is therefore a work of real importance, Roosevelt 131 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:37.600 wrote to preserve permanently this unwritten ballad literature of the 132 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:42.440 back country and the frontier end. In the following decades, 133 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.799 John Lomax would intermittently pursue this career as a folklorist, 134 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:49.519 which is what led him in the early nineteen thirties 135 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:53.159 to the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song, 136 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:58.000 established in nineteen twenty eight. Folk in this wider use 137 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:01.399 often wouldn't refer to what is now considered folk music. 138 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.679 It would come to mean any distinct music or song 139 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.120 specific to a particular part of the population, whether categorized 140 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:14.279 by race, religion, heritage, field of work, or its economic, geographical, 141 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:19.080 or other localized situation. John Lomax, unimpressed by what the 142 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:23.279 Library had so far collected, arranged to conduct field recording 143 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:27.080 trips for it. That was when his son became involved. 144 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:30.720 In June nineteen thirty three, when the sixty five year 145 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.720 old John Lomax set out on his first Library of 146 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:39.440 Congress sortie across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. He 147 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:42.879 took the eighteen year old Alan with him. By now, 148 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:46.559 song collecting was no longer a matter of only transcribing 149 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:50.679 music and lyrics. It also involved using the earliest, hefty 150 00:09:50.919 --> 00:09:55.759 but portable recording devices. Alan Lomax would later claim that 151 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:58.240 his father got hold of the first such device he 152 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:02.279 had directly from Tom I Edison's widow, though evidence for 153 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:07.360 this seems elusive. Within a couple of years, Alan Lomax 154 00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:10.720 was off on his own, separate song collecting journeys, and 155 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:13.720 in nineteen thirty seven, at the age of twenty two, 156 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.639 he was hired to work full time for the Library 157 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:21.159 of Congress. His rather quaint formal title was Assistant in 158 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:23.840 charge of the Archive, but the main part of his 159 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:27.000 job was to travel the country, seeking out songs and 160 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.799 those who sang them, and urging them to allow him 161 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:36.840 to make recordings. Three Coastal Georgia. The younger Lomax's first 162 00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:39.799 song hunting trip without his father took place in the 163 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:43.240 summer of nineteen thirty five, though he didn't travel alone, 164 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:47.639 instead enlisting the help of two much older women. One 165 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:51.840 Mary Elizabeth Barnacle, was a professor at New York University 166 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:57.320 who taught folklore and medieval literature. The second, Zora Neil Hurston, 167 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:00.799 was an anthropologist who had published her first novel the 168 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:04.279 previous year, though the wider acclaim of its follow up, 169 00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:07.279 Their Eyes Were Watching God, was still a couple of 170 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:12.240 years away. Lomax had been impressed by Hurston's immersive account 171 00:11:12.519 --> 00:11:16.879 of Afro Creole occult hudo in America and would describe 172 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:19.720 her as quote probably the best informed person to day 173 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:24.519 on Western Negro folklore. Hurston would later note that one 174 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:27.559 of her roles when working with Lomax would be quote 175 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:34.639 counteracting his tendencies to hasty generalization. This somewhat unusual traveling 176 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:38.000 party for nineteen thirty five, a young white man and 177 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:41.799 two older women, one white, one black. Hurston, at her 178 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:46.120 apparent suggestion driving a second car, met on June fifteenth 179 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:49.120 in Brunswick, Georgia, and for the first leg of their 180 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:53.159 journey headed east to Saint Simon's Island, a sight recommended 181 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:56.559 by Hurston as quote crammed with Negro song and lore 182 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:59.960 end quote. There they rented a house and sent out 183 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:04.519 they were looking for singers. The first evening Lomax reported, 184 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:08.440 our front yard was crowded. They spent the next few 185 00:12:08.519 --> 00:12:13.039 days recording Lomax's excited inventory, which gives a sense of 186 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.000 just how much music could be found in one small, 187 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:19.559 unherralded spot on the map by someone determined enough to 188 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:23.039 find it. Included quote chanties of the sort that the 189 00:12:23.080 --> 00:12:26.879 Negroes sing and loading the ships in Charleston, Savannah and Brunswick, 190 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:31.600 probably the earliest type of Negro work. Song, ring shouts, 191 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:35.440 probably the earliest form of the Negro spiritual, widely current 192 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:38.320 in the days of slavery, but now all but forgotten 193 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:42.360 except in a few isolated communities, an archaic version of 194 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:46.000 a rhythmic guitar technique known as juking, and even quote 195 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:49.360 the shrill strange cries that these children used to signal 196 00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:53.039 to each other across the field's end quote. They also 197 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:56.840 recorded an interview with a man Wallace Quarterman, who had 198 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.080 been born in eighteen forty four, who shared his memory 199 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:04.879 about the transition from slavery after the Civil War. Saint 200 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:08.840 Simon's Island was not technically an island, but until nineteen 201 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:13.320 twenty four it had been inaccessible by road, separated, Lomax 202 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:18.120 would write by sea marsh and Mangrove Swamp. As such, 203 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:21.960 it was home to independent communities of the formerly enslaved 204 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:26.240 who lived in relative isolation that was intrinsic to what 205 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:30.240 Lomax believed he was capturing. Quote, we felt when we 206 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:33.440 left Saint Simon's Island that we had turned back time 207 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:37.240 forty or fifty years. He would report and heard and 208 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:41.039 recorded some genuine Afro American folk music of the middle 209 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:46.799 of the nineteenth century. Lomax's most prolific source was John Davis, 210 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:50.519 a guitarist and singer who delivered so low guitar pieces, 211 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:55.120 roughshod harmony, singing with friends, and storytelling. Also, it perhaps 212 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:59.240 should be noted, a song called Nasty Butt Stinky Butt. 213 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:02.519 In the weeks after this visit, Davis wrote Lomax a 214 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.679 letter alluding to some suggested joint future plans quote, I 215 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:08.960 will be ready to go with you whenever you say end. 216 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:12.080 But as far as I can tell, they didn't meet 217 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:17.000 again for twenty four years. In the intervening period, Lomax 218 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:21.519 did plenty else. Lomax was already finding different avenues to 219 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:27.879 explore and proselytize about his passions, including writing, filmmaking, and broadcasting, 220 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:32.200 even before his tenure with the Library of Congress, effectively 221 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:35.840 ended in nineteen forty two. Later in life, he would 222 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:39.200 do a great deal of academic theorizing about music and 223 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:45.559 other expressive behaviors, structural and epistemological commonalities across cultures. In 224 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:49.759 nineteen fifty he moved to Europe, notionally to collect music there, 225 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:53.879 which he did with great energy. Though an FBI investigation 226 00:14:54.039 --> 00:14:57.960 into possible communist associations may have played its part in 227 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:02.320 both his departure and his stand away, Lomax was never 228 00:15:02.360 --> 00:15:06.919 formally accused of anything. Lomax returned to the United States 229 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.000 in nineteen fifty eight, and in the summer of nineteen 230 00:15:10.039 --> 00:15:13.240 fifty nine he embarked on what would be his last 231 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:17.519 grand sweep of song gathering. This time, he traveled across 232 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:20.879 the Southern States with his then partner, the young English 233 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:25.480 folk singer Shirley Collins, and Ampak's stereo reel tape machine 234 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:29.039 recording equipment, a distinct upgrade on anything he'd been able 235 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:31.919 to use before on what would become known as his 236 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:37.360 Southern Journey. After visiting seven states, their penultimate stop was Georgia. 237 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:42.360 Arriving back on Saint Simon's Island, Lomax sought out Davis 238 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:47.080 Lomax's archives contained a photograph he took of Davis smiling 239 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.559 on his porch, and recorded him again, this time with 240 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:55.039 the group called the Spiritual Singers of Coastal Georgia. Among 241 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:57.720 them was a woman who had moved to the islands 242 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:01.799 since his previous visit, Bessie Joe Jones, a remarkable singer 243 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:06.519 whom Lomax would subsequently take under his wing. Two years later. 244 00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:10.200 Jones lived for three months with Lomax and his new wife, 245 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:13.639 Tony at their house in New York as they recorded 246 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:17.080 jones stories and songs, and he helped push forward her 247 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.360 touring career with the group he had heard on the island, 248 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:25.399 now re christened the Georgia Sea Island Singers. In January 249 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:29.240 nineteen seventy seven, they performed at an inaugural concert for 250 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:34.159 Jimmy Carter, the first president from their state. Before Jones 251 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:37.399 died in nineteen eighty four, she made records both with 252 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:40.720 the group and on her own, and her distinctive hybrid 253 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:45.200 of folk and gospel received a fair amount of acclaim. Then, 254 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:48.919 some years later, her voice resurfaced in a different way, 255 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:53.759 one more directly related to Lomax. In nineteen ninety nine, 256 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:59.120 the dance music pioneer Moby released his album Play, which 257 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:02.679 went on to sell to twelve million copies. The album 258 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:06.799 made prominent use of historical samples, three of which Moby 259 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:09.440 took directly from a CD set lent to him by 260 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:14.720 a friend, recordings from Lomax's nineteen fifty nine Travels. The 261 00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:19.400 album remains divisive. Did Moby's sampling represent a deft feet 262 00:17:19.480 --> 00:17:23.599 of musical fusion casting a spotlight on neglected past glories, 263 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:29.319 or was it an act of opportunistic appropriation, blithely plucking 264 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:34.160 authenticity off the shelf. Either way, the very first voice 265 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:37.119 you hear on the album Till My Honey Come Back, 266 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:41.160 sometimes from the single Honey, is that of Bessie Jones 267 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:46.400 forty years earlier, singing into Alan Lomax's microphone one October 268 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:52.839 evening on the coast of Georgia four, northern Michigan. Sometimes 269 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.599 the recordings Lomax made were destined to sit in the archive, 270 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.519 waiting to be noticed. Often aside from the atat of 271 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:04.960 a few musicologists and academics, they are still waiting, but 272 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:08.799 in their own way. Some of these less fetid recordings 273 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:12.079 are as important for what they show of Lomax's ongoing 274 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:15.960 mission and the story he captured. Such could be said 275 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:19.160 of all that Lomax found in the Upper Midwest, and 276 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:21.319 the story of what he did there is one that, 277 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:25.519 even in summary, is quite something to tell. By nineteen 278 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:29.559 thirty eight, Lomax and his father had between them collected 279 00:18:29.559 --> 00:18:32.960 for the Library of Congress rich examples of what might 280 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:36.960 be considered the more obvious regional American music. They had 281 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:41.559 recorded Appalachian folk, the Cajun and Creole traditions of Louisiana, 282 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:45.680 texted cowboy songs, and all kinds of gospel, blues and 283 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:49.759 work songs, and had also searched widely for disparate traces 284 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:54.960 of African, Mexican, Caribbean, and French musical traditions, particularly across 285 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.680 the Southern States. Now Lomax set his sights on a 286 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:03.880 summer trip to Michigan, particularly its Upper Peninsula. He explained 287 00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:07.440 his forthcoming journey's rationale and a letter to his seniors 288 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:11.240 at the Library of Congress quote, the archive will be 289 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:15.359 able to record what remains of the once vigorous Lumberjack culture, 290 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:19.960 to explore the musical potentialities of the many foreign language 291 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.920 groups of that area. Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Gaelic, French, Canadian, 292 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:28.759 et cetera. And to observe what have been the results 293 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:31.880 of the mixing of these cultures with the Anglo American 294 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:35.960 matrix end quote. He loaded up a car with recording 295 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.759 and filmmaking equipment and drove north from Washington. One way 296 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.960 of reading the correspondence that exists from the next three 297 00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:47.440 months on a trip that kept being extended is a 298 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:51.799 chronicle of desperation and disaster. Lomax was always on the 299 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:55.359 verge of running out of money. A Western Union telegram 300 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:59.799 to home base in Washington simply read, quote, please send 301 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:03.240 my advance or voucher or something by wire. I'm not 302 00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:07.359 eating end quote. These money stresses were amplified by the 303 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:11.279 demands of the people he was beseeching to record. Though 304 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:14.079 he did not pay them to perform, he often had 305 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:19.640 to meet other expectations. Quote songs in Michigan absolutely require beer, 306 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:24.240 he explained. Worse, Lomax was robbed at least twice. The 307 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.319 recording equipment and his guitar were taken from his parked 308 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:31.640 car in Detroit. He had to wait days for replacement equipment. Then, 309 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:35.640 later in the trip, film reels containing several weeks worth 310 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:39.160 of footage were stolen. As for the car itself of 311 00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:43.119 Plymouth Sedan, Lomax had to pay for new brake linings. 312 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:47.720 The car was literally falling to pieces, he reported, and 313 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:53.400 yet Lomax's self ascribed mission clearly possessed him. Even amid adversity. 314 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:56.799 You can feel his enthusiasm for what he called quote 315 00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:59.839 the most richly varied area for folk music that I 316 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:04.400 am had ever visited. The music was as unfamiliar and 317 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:08.160 as wide ranging as he'd hoped. For instance, in and 318 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:12.400 around Detroit he found a particularly rich vein of Serbian 319 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:17.480 musicians playing traditional instruments the dipple, a Balkin double pipe, 320 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:21.960 the duduk, an Armenian double reed woodwind instrument, and the guzl, 321 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:26.319 a one stringed bowed lute, detailing with evident pleasure in 322 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:29.559 his note book that one session of Serbian shepherd's music 323 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:32.720 had been recorded in the shadow of the Chrysler plant. 324 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:36.920 Soon he moved north, away from the bigger cities, where, 325 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:41.599 among many other sources, he found aging lumberjack singers and 326 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.519 captured a catalog of songs sung by and two men 327 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:47.960 who went into the woods in the fall and didn't 328 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.839 emerge until the spring. A couple of weeks in, Lomax 329 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:55.000 took a boat to Beaver Island in the middle of 330 00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:59.640 Lake Michigan, a location with the peculiar and particular history. 331 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:04.160 In the nineteenth century, Native Odawa residents were joined, then 332 00:22:04.279 --> 00:22:08.319 largely displaced by a Mormon community led by its self 333 00:22:08.359 --> 00:22:13.359 styled King James Jesse Strang. After Strang was assassinated in 334 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:17.119 eighteen fifty six, the Mormons were driven out and their 335 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:21.960 place was taken primarily by Irish immigrants. The singer's Lomax 336 00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:25.440 met were the descendants of that influx, and he recorded 337 00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:28.319 as many of their songs as he could. Quote over 338 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:32.319 a hundred come all yee ballads, forecastle, lumberjack, lake sailor, 339 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:37.039 Irish popular, et cetera, he related. Two weeks later, Lomax 340 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:40.640 hit another rich scene in the community of Newberry quote 341 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:43.599 the toughest little town I have seen in Michigan end quote, 342 00:22:43.880 --> 00:22:47.640 where he recorded seventy more songs, most in a variety 343 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:52.759 of Northern European languages or in their evolved North American dialects. 344 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:58.359 He also came across more lumberjack songs. These were typically 345 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:01.920 working tales of heroism and struggle, but as in many 346 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:07.039 other genres, a particular subset was obscene, often in extremely 347 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:12.000 anatomically specific ways. A singer named Bert Graham offered a 348 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.720 song titled Joe Williams, which told the tale in searingly 349 00:23:15.880 --> 00:23:19.880 ribald language of a twenty one year old ox driver 350 00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:23.440 who goes into town and catches the pox, concluding that 351 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.200 he'd have been wiser to stay in the woods in 352 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:31.359 intimate congress with his favorite ox. This, too, Lomax garnered 353 00:23:31.359 --> 00:23:36.960 for the government archives. Lomax kept delaying his return. I 354 00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:39.640 want a chance, now that I have explored lumberjacks and 355 00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:42.640 lake sailors, a bit to take a whack at the miners, 356 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:46.200 the Finns and the French, he wrote to Washington. He 357 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:49.920 duly did that, recording a significant body of work from 358 00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:55.079 the Finnish diaspora, before finally packing up after driving eighty 359 00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:58.599 four hundred miles in three months. He declared that there 360 00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:00.720 was so much more to find than he planned to 361 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:05.960 return the following summer. In the end, other priorities edged 362 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:09.759 into place, and he would never return. Hundreds of albums 363 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:13.599 have collected music Lomacs recorded over the years, but few 364 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:19.079 contain recordings made during this Michigan sojourn. One album, largely 365 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:21.759 based on a subsection of the trip songs of the 366 00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:26.000 Michigan Lumberjacks, was released in nineteen sixty, but it's been 367 00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:30.319 long unavailable. About four years ago someone posted the whole 368 00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:33.200 album on YouTube, where you can still hear it for free, 369 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:37.759 and appended a rather despairing note. No one I've shown 370 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:40.440 this record to cares about it in any way, but 371 00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:44.440 I think it's so sick. Since the album was posted, 372 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:46.799 it has been listened to less than once a day, 373 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:50.599 but it is there. The whole three months worth of music, 374 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:54.319 in fact, sits on the Library of Congress website, a 375 00:24:54.359 --> 00:24:57.519 couple of clicks away from any one inquisitive enough to 376 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:01.880 uncover these preserved moments. All the musicians he recorded are 377 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:05.640 long gone. Many of the microworlds in which he found 378 00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:09.519 these songs either are gone to or are changed beyond 379 00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:13.039 all recognition. But these recordings will be with us for 380 00:25:13.079 --> 00:25:15.880 as long as people have ears to hear them. In 381 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:19.400 the long run. Recordings like these what he captured when 382 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:22.160 few others made the great effort both of action and 383 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:26.160 imagination that was Lomax's hall mark may well prove to 384 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:31.480 be the greatest treasure. Five Mississippi, in search of Lomax. 385 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:35.440 From everything I'd read, I knew that on Saint Simon's 386 00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:39.000 Island and in places like Beaver Island, there were likely 387 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:42.519 to be few, if any, remnants of what Lomax did. 388 00:25:43.240 --> 00:25:46.599 Mississippi promised to be a little different. So I traveled 389 00:25:46.599 --> 00:25:50.599 there in search of whatever traces might still linger. That's 390 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:53.400 how I found myself standing on the spot where once 391 00:25:53.559 --> 00:25:57.759 was Muddy Water's front room. Apart from the plaque, there 392 00:25:57.799 --> 00:26:00.799 isn't much else to day, just a vacant grassy lawn, 393 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:04.240 some shrubs, and one gnarled tree trunk that must have 394 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:08.039 heard it all. But to know exactly what happened on 395 00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:11.720 that day in nineteen forty one, once the recording equipment 396 00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:15.799 was switched on. Even now we can just listen. First, 397 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:19.240 Waters runs through a song called Country Blues, and then, 398 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:23.880 after its final words, yeah, I've been mistreated baby now baby, 399 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:26.519 and I don't mind dying. You can hear the sound 400 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:30.480 of Lomax's footsteps walking cross the porch toward where Waters 401 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:34.720