Alan Lomax - The Wild Rippling Water (western folk song)

[Flint3162]

John and his father Alan both, I believe, worked for the Library of Congress collecting singers and songs from the people. They went to Appalachia to prisons to Texas and even Haiti. They were raised in Texas and so their early exposure was to local Texas music. They were trying to collect music before it was influenced by radio and recordings.

[wolfvillenow]

I really like his singing but he doesn't seem to have made many recordings of his own voice and I wonder why he decided to collect the work of others (and he did a great job of that) rather than record..

[wolfvillenow]

I like his singing but he doesn't seem to have made many recordings of his own voice.

[seekingoz]

The only songs I've ever heard Alan Lomax sing are on this Texas Folk Songs album. Did he make any other recordings of himself? Apart from being a great folk music collector, he was a great singer!

[rmm413e]

@seekingoz I don't know for sure, but his Texas Folk Songs album is the only one I've ever come across and I have looked for others. (There is an album called Cowboy Songs of the Old West, which is a compilation of songs sung by Lomax and Ed McCurdy, but I'm pretty sure all of Lomax's songs on it were taken from the Texas Folk Songs album.)