Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist who recorded, studied, and promoted traditional music in the United States and abroad.
Library of Congress Folk Music Archive: A major collection of field recordings, manuscripts, and related materials documenting folk music and culture. Lomax helped build its folk-song holdings through extensive collecting and fieldwork.
Field recording: The capture of sound or images outside a controlled studio, often in the setting where they occur. Lomax recorded musicians in homes, prisons, churches, and other everyday settings.
John A. Lomax: An American folklorist who collected and published cowboy songs and other traditional music. Alan began field collecting with his father, sharing early recording trips and archival work.
American folk music revival: A twentieth-century movement that renewed public interest in traditional and folk music in the United States. Lomax’s recordings and broadcasts helped bring regional performers and songs to wider audiences.
Shirley Collins: An English folk singer and folklorist who collected and performed traditional music. She collaborated with Lomax on fieldwork in the American South during the 1950s.
Association for Cultural Equity: A nonprofit organization that preserves and shares Alan Lomax’s ethnographic collections. Lomax founded it to safeguard his recordings, films, photographs, and notes.
Portable recording equipment: Devices designed to record sound away from fixed studios or broadcast facilities. Portable machines let Lomax document performances in remote locations.
Jelly Roll Morton: An American pianist, composer, and bandleader who helped shape early jazz. Alan Lomax’s recorded interviews with Morton documented the musician’s life and musical history.
Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music: A 1952 collection of commercial recordings that became a key source for the American folk revival. Smith’s influential anthology offered a distinct route for circulating vernacular recordings beyond Lomax’s field archives.
Bess Lomax Hawes: An American folklorist, musician, and educator who worked to preserve and teach traditional arts. Alan’s sister pursued folk music and public folklore through her own influential career.