Lomax, Alan 1915-2002

The folk songs of North America, in the English language ( )
11 editions published between 1960 and 1975 in English and held by 2,451 libraries worldwide

The land where the blues began by Alan Lomax ( Book )
23 editions published between 1993 and 2003 in English and held by 2,024 libraries worldwide
The bluesmen were the bards of America's last frontier, the rowdy Mississippi Delta, in the days of the cotton boom, of levee and railroad building. Alan Lomax takes us on an adventure into the "bad old days" of the Delta. Weaving together the tales of muleskinners and roustabouts, church matrons and convicts, children and blind street singers, Lomax gives us the rich, sorrow-ridden background of the blues. We meet Muddy Waters (the father of modern blues), learn how Robert Johnson met his end, and are introduced to Fred McDowell and Son House, who taught Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton how to play the blues. In pre-integration days, when Lomax, a Southerner, first began his research, custom forbade a white man to socialize or even shake hands with a black. Despite threats of jail and violence, Lomax broke through the veil of silence that up till the 1940s had concealed the life of blacks in the Deep South. For the first time the people in these lower depths told the story of their humiliation and exploitation - of the brutal work camps that wasted lives and of the monstrous state penitentiaries that devoured the rebellious. No blacks before them had dared to expose the cruelties of the post-Reconstruction Deep South, the time of broken promises and illegal repression. In 1941, Blind Sid Hemphill, drum major of the Hills, introduced Lomax to the African roots of the Mississippi music, whose performance style (in song, speech, music, dance) has survived virtually intact in American black folk communities. This powerful, joy-filled, nonverbal and oral tradition gave rise to spirituals, jazz, dance steps, humor, and other folkways that kept the hearts of blacks alive all through their time of travail. It is this river of African-American culture - swept along in a tide of bawdy tales, murder ballads, work songs, hollers, game songs, church shouts - that produced the blues, which now enchant the world.

American ballads and folk songs ( )
18 editions published between 1934 and 1994 in English and Undetermined and held by 1,970 libraries worldwide

3000 years of black poetry; an anthology by Alan Lomax ( Book )
6 editions published between 1970 and 1971 in English and held by 1,667 libraries worldwide
Includes roots of black poetry in Africa, from primitive song, and extends to Egypt, Latin America, the West Indies, and the rural and urban streets of our country. The poetry of black Africa speaks directly to us over time and distance.

Cowboy songs and other frontier ballads by John A Lomax ( Book )
16 editions published between 1938 and 1969 in English and held by 1,381 libraries worldwide
More than two hundred songs, some with music, whose lyrics depict life in the old West.

Mister Jelly Roll; the fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "inventor of jazz by Alan Lomax ( Book )
47 editions published between 1950 and 2008 in 6 languages and held by 1,300 libraries worldwide
Om jazzpianisten Ferdinand Joseph Morton.

Folk song: U.S.A. : the 111 best American ballads by John A Lomax ( )
18 editions published between 1947 and 1975 in English and No Linguistic content and held by 1,205 libraries worldwide

Folk song style and culture by Alan Lomax ( Book )
23 editions published between 1968 and 2007 in English and held by 992 libraries worldwide

Alan Lomax : selected writings, 1934-1997 by Alan Lomax ( Book )
19 editions published between 2003 and 2007 in English and Japanese and held by 898 libraries worldwide
Accompany CD has excerpts from a speech given by Alan Lomax on March 7, 1989, at the New York Public Library plus seven tracks of folk songs recorded by Alan Lomax.

Hard hitting songs for hard-hit people : [American folk songs of the Depression and the labor movement of the 1930's ( )
9 editions published between 1967 and 1999 in English and held by 796 libraries worldwide
Collection of more than 150 American folk songs of the Depression and the Labor movement of the 1930's.