Book captures Lomax's visit

Folklorist Alan Lomax returned to the United States in 1959 after nearly a decade in Europe, where his work included educating many future blues fans via programs on the BBC. Once home he resumed the folk music research across the South that he had embarked upon in the early ’30s together with his father, Mississippi native John Avery Lomax.

A wonderful new book, “The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax: Words, Photographs and Music,” captures his 1959 visit. It features over 100 mostly unpublished photographs, a 12-track CD, an introduction by folklorist William Ferris and an extended essay by Tom Piazza.

The book is jointly published by W.W. Norton and Company and the Library of Congress — the depository for the Lomax’s recordings. These include his and his father’s work for the LOC in the ’30s and ’40s, as well as Lomax’s later independent research, which is actively curated by the nonprofit Association for Cultural Equity’s Alan Lomax Archive.

The photos follow Lomax’s journey across the South, including a fiddler’s gathering in Galax, Va., an outdoor revival meeting in Kentucky, the north Mississippi home of Fred McDowell and the notorious Parchman Penitentiary. Also here are images from a 1960 filming that Lomax supervised in Williamsburg to “recreate” colonial music with musicians including Como fife player Ed Young.

The introduction by William Ferris, who conducted his own field recordings in Mississippi during the late ’60s and ’70s, addresses the great influence of Lomax and his work among younger folklorists.

Piazza provides an insightful survey of Lomax’s remarkably productive and diverse career, and his essay is illustrated with multiple images from Lomax’s early work for the LOC. The photographs themselves are richly annotated, and the accompanying CD includes three tracks from Lomax’s visit to Como, including one by Fred McDowell.