Lomax, Alan

Lomax, Alan

(1915–  ) folksong scholar; born in Austin, Texas. Son of folk music scholar John Lomax, he traveled with his father collecting and recording folksongs in prisons and elsewhere throughout the South; among their many discoveries was Huddie Ledbetter, or "Leadbelly," whom they brought to New York City in 1934. Alan joined his father in the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress in 1937 and was responsible for the first recordings of such American originals as Jelly Roll Morton and Muddy Waters. He produced educational radio programs and traveled the world recording and studying folk music. He published The Land Where the Blues Began (1993), biographies of African-Americans, and collections of American folk songs—some in collaboration with his sister, Bess Lomax Hawes—that have provided valuable records of and insight into several areas of American folk culture.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.