Alan Lomax

Ethnomusicologist and archivist Alan Lomax's contribution to the preservation and continued flourishing of American folk music is inestimable. Lomax traveled through the American South in the 1940s with a mobile recording unit in order to capture firsthand the rich tapestry of the nation's non-commercial music. The massive amount of music Lomax collected for the Library of Congress is a Rosetta Stone of American roots forms, featuring work and prison songs, raw gospel, Delta blues, string bands, yodels, sacred harp, and rustic country, among myriad other sounds. Although Lomax's areas of discovery were not limited to just the United States, his legacy will forever be synonymous with American music.