This article is from 2012. It's definitely exciting that the Lomax archive is online — but it could be worth updating the title.
On another note, if you're interested in Lomax you might also be interested in Sublime Frequencies [1], Awesome Tapes from Africa [2] or the Nonesuch Explorer Series. Both are mostly focussed on music outside the US, but they all seem to capture something similar to what Lomax was after.
Jeez, I can't believe I missed that it's from 2012 - thanks for pointing that out. A friend sent me the link this morning and I just assumed it was recent. As it happens I was just reading an article about this type of time-warp effect (in this case, Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's 2013 death getting circulated on social media last week like it had just happened):
Alan and his father, John, recorded and archived some incredibly important music and there's a mountain of it to pour through. If you're just getting into it, the most famous is most likely the "Sourthern Journey" from 59-60 which has all types of field recordings, gospel, blues, bluegrass, folk, hollers, etc. The early Deep River of Song recordings from the 1930s are quite good as well. Lots of international music and lots of great interviews. If you like Muddy Waters, his first recordings were done by Lomax and are starkly different from his later band/electric stuff.
There are interesting (aka crazy) copyright issues surrounding these recordings. Lomax had copyrights on songs he only recorded? And modern artists need to license them if they are sampled?
This last weekend I read Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. It's been a while since I read for fun. This is at least partly because the list of books that I want to read (e.g. priceless, unmissable cultural experiences) is longer than the time I have to dedicate to reading.
There will always be more I want to experience than I have time for. Not always sure what to do about that. Lomax's collection is amazing and invaluable. I do hope some people mine this and gems that I really shouldn't miss somehow cross into my experience.
This collection is awesome. Totally worth the time. Alan Lomax is genius who saw the future. The Global Jukebox lives!
I know what you mean, I haven't read for pleasure in a long time, but listening is more possible, and this archive is totally worth the effort. The interface could use a little work tho.
On another note, if you're interested in Lomax you might also be interested in Sublime Frequencies [1], Awesome Tapes from Africa [2] or the Nonesuch Explorer Series. Both are mostly focussed on music outside the US, but they all seem to capture something similar to what Lomax was after.
1 - http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/ 2 - http://www.awesometapes.com/