On the Road With Alan Lomax, a “By the People” Campaign from the Library of Congress

Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn discuss “On the Road with Alan Lomax” a campaign in the Library of Congress “By the People” program, which crowdsources transcriptions of Lomax’s field notes. Alan Lomax was a prominent folklorist who made iconic field recordings around the world. The hosts interview Victoria Van Hyning, Lauren Algee, and Todd Harvey of the Library of Congress, and play some of Lomax’s best recordings, including the earliest recordings of Muddy Waters and Honeyboy Edwards, interviews with Jelly Roll Morton, classic recordings of Vera Hall, Bessie Jones, Seamus Ennis, and The Copper Family, and music from Grenada, Haiti, Finland, and all over the U.S. More information on the songs as well as full audio and videos of some of the performances, photos of some the singers, and links to all the archival sources, can be found at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife.