(Scroll down for playlist and links to resources mentioned.)

This episode provides an introduction to the singers and sites visited by John A. Lomax in the Palmetto State between 1934 and 1940, on the occasion of...:

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the Association for Cultural Equity, and the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African

Studies at Coastal Carolina University are pleased to announce that the

entirety of John A. Lomax's historic South Carolina recordings—made between 1934 and 1940 under the aegis of the Library of Congress' Archive of Folk Song—are now freely available online via the Lomax Digital Archive. [Access the collection here.] This collaboratively produced catalog provides free access to more than 12 hours of historic audio, accompanied by extensive descriptive metadata, documenting a diversity of Black and white folk and vernacular music in the Palmetto State: spirituals, hymns, blues, lullabies, ballads, children's game songs, work songs, as well as stories and personal narratives. 

John A. Lomax made several trips to South Carolina as a guest of folklorist

Genevieve W. Chandler in coastal Murrells Inlet, who introduced him to some of the renowned singers in the Gullah community there: among them Zackie Knox, Lillie Knox, and "Mom" Hagar Brown. Also representing Gullah traditions of the region in these recordings are Caesar Roper and the Wadmalaw Island singers who participated in Rosa Warren Wilson's "Plantation Echoes" program, which Lomax recorded in Columbia in 1937. White singers also contributed to the sessions at Chandler's home with children's songs, contemporary hillbilly numbers, and ballads. Lomax recorded incarcerated men and women—at the Reid Farm in rural Kershaw County; at the state penitentiary in Columbia; and in a "convict camp" in Anderson County—singing group work songs, sacred pieces, and the occasional blues. Two WPA ditch-digging crews appear in these recordings, one from the Murrells Inlet area and the other from Clemson; this latter group Lomax recorded at the home of South Carolina journalist and memoirist Ben Robertson. Only a fraction of these recordings have ever been published or otherwise made available publicly.

(The Murrells Inlet and Wadmalaw Island material was processed with the support of a National Historic Publications and Records Commission grant with Coastal Carolina University.)

Playlist (links to catalog records in the Lomax Digital Archive):

*Zackie Knox: When I’m Gone, Gone, Gone

*Lillie Knox: I Know My Time Ain't Long

*Hagar Brown: Stay In the Field

*Jonesie Mack, James Mack and Nick Robison: Corrine, Corrina

*Capitol City Laundry Quartet: Ezekiel Saw the Wheel

*Minnie Floyd: Time Enough Yet

*Mike Maybank and group: See John the Writer

*Cleve "Dynamite" Wright & Slick Owens: Ain’t No Heaven On the County Road

*D.W. White & People’s Burial Aid Choir: I’ll Be Standing at the Station

Works cited:

*Coming Through: Voices of a South Carolina Gullah Community from WPA Oral Histories. U. of South Carolina Press, 2008.

*Alan Lomax's 1983 Johns Island recordings. (Perhaps strangely, Alan didn’t visit South Carolina on his 1959 and 1960 trips through the American South, although he does appear as an announcer on a Folkways LP documenting the 1964 folk festival on Johns Island that featured the singers of the Moving Star Hall - like Benjy Bligen, Bertha Pinckney, and Janie Hunter - who appear in the '83 footage. That festival was organized by Guy and Candie Carawan, who also compiled the gorgeous book “Ain't You Got A Right to the Tree of Life," consisting of narrative segments by Johns Islanders and photographs by Bob Yellin.) 

*The Oxford American piece about Rosa Warren Wilson and “Plantation Echoes” has gone missing from their online archives between the recording of this episode and compiling these notes. If anyone turns up a link, please let us know!

[Bed music:]

Sid Hemphill and band: The Death March (Quitman Co., Mississippi, August 1942).

Mr. & Mrs. Boyd Hoskins: Ah, Lovely Appearance of Death (Horse Creek, Clay Co., Kentucky, October 1942)

Bessie Jones: Oh Death (St. Simons Island, Georgia, October 1959)

Nimrod Workman: O Death (Mascot, Tennessee, July 1983)

Bessie Jones tells a story of a woman enduring a night’s worth of ghostly trials (NYC, October 1961)

Sheila Kay Adams: Little Margaret (Burton Cove, Sodom Laurel, Madison Co., North Carolina, September 1982)

Unidentified woman: funeral lament (Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Abruzzo, Italy, December 1954)

Liborio Garanfa (guitar) and Giuseppe Gavita (violin and vocal) (Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy, December 1954)

Almeda Riddle: The House Carpenter (Heber Springs, Arkansas, October 1959)

Jeannie Robertson: Bonny Annie and Andrew Lammie, followed by a story of her own encounter with a spirit (London, November 1953)

Texas Gladden tells a story of her grandfather’s experience in haunted house during the Civil War (Decca Studios, NYC, 1946)

We considered including these two relevant and wonderful pieces that aren’t directly Lomax-related – enjoy them here instead:

Burl Hammons: Turkey In the Straw, learned from an apparition, as he explains. (Recorded by Carl Fleischauer and Dwight Diller at Pocahontas Co., West Virginia, April 1970. Scroll down here for audio.)

Billie Maxwell: The Haunted Hunter (Victor Records session, El Paso, Texas, July 1929. Maxwell was a native of New Mexico, living at the time in Arizona.) 

August 30, 2021, is the 70-year anniversary of the 1951 Edinburgh People’s Festival Ceilidh, the seminal event that heralded and generated the Scottish Folk Revival of the 1960s. Alan Lomax was on hand to record it in the Oddfellows Hall, and thus able to preserve a document of a legendary concert that alerted the astonished urban audience to the continuing vitality of Scotland’s rich heritage of traditional song. People in the rich folk culture of the Gaelic-speaking West, or speaking the Doric accent of the North East, still held and sang their vibrant old ballads and songs of work, but the Central Belt city folk thought the songs entombed in old books. Until the Ceilidh. 

This podcast presents the (near) entirety* of Alan Lomax's recordings of the event. This audio is considerably inconsistent volume-wise, as quiet singers were typically received with thunderous applause (for which Lomax kept his finger on the fader of his recording machine). And it is presented here raw (unmastered), so headphone-users, be warned! The episode functions as an audio accompaniment to the Lomax Digital Archive's new exhibit, curated by folklorist Ewan McVicar, which annotates the Ceilidh program song-by-song, and pairs more recent interpretations of those songs by revival singers in Scotland and further afield. We're pleased to say that two new recordings have been provided exclusively for the exhibit, by the fine singers Christine Kidd and Alasdair Roberts (who is also a guitarist/composer extraordinaire).

*We omit the lengthy vote of thanks given in Gaelic by the Rev. Duncan. Also, note that some performances/commentaries were truncated by tape running out, and that Lomax missed recording the introductory piping by James Burgess.

Brutality and inhumanity were central to the Southern state prison farms, in their theory and their practice, and of them all, the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm was the most brutal and inhuman. Both John A. and Alan Lomax made repeated visits to Parchman, recording — under the eye of the disinterested white captains, sergeants, and warden, and the guns of the "trusty" prisoner-guards — a body of American song unmatched in its depth, dignity, and power. Folklorist and prison documentarian Bruce Jackson once said that the group work songs sung by the black inmates of the Southern penitentiary farms were means of "making it in Hell." Alan Lomax, writing in 1947, said that: "In the pen itself, we saw that the songs, quite literally kept the men alive and normal.... These songs, coming out of the filthy darkness of the pen, touched with exquisite musicality, are a testimony to the love of truth and beauty which is a universal human trait." In this episode, spurred by the ongoing horrors being reported in the Mississippi Department of Corrections in general and at Parchman in particular, we listen back over the four decades of recordings made by the four white folklorists (the Lomaxes, Herbert Halpert, and William Ferris) who took the trouble to visit the place and document the singing of its prisoners: work songs for clearing ground, felling trees, picking cotton, or breaking rocks, as well as solo field hollers, spirituals, and blues.

No one can mourn the passing of this song tradition and the system of black disenfranchisement and white supremacy that made it necessary to its singers. But, despite the 1971 class-auction lawsuit that forced federal reorganization of Parchman due to its epidemic use of "cruel and unusual punishment," it's only differently awful in 2020. In his harrowing "Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice," Michael Oshinsky provides a 1975 quote from a convict named Horace Carter, who’d been at Parchman for fifty years. What was missing in the “new” Parchman, Mr. Carter said, was “the feeling that work counted for something… awful bad as it was in most camps, that kept us tired and kept us together and made me feel better. I’m not looking to go backwards. I know the troubles at old Parchman better than any man alive. I’m 73 years old. But I look around today and see a place that makes me sad.” This episode was completed before the announcement that William Barr's Justice Department will open a civil rights investigation into conditions at Parchman. It's hard to imagine an administration with less sympathy for incarcerated people of color, but who knows, maybe, at last, Parchman Farm will be shuttered for good.

“These songs are a vivid reminder of a system of social control and forced labor that has endured in the South for centuries, and I do not believe that the pattern of Southern life can be fundamentally reshaped until what lies behind these roaring, ironic choruses is understood.” —Alan Lomax, 1958

For streaming audio of all of Alan Lomax's 1947, 1948, and 1959 Parchman Farm recordings, visit archive.culturalequity.org.

PLAYLIST:

[Bed music:] Unidentified ensemble, including Lonnie Robertson, guitar, and possibly "Black Eagle," cornet. Camp 1, April 1936.

*Frank Devine and unidentified man: In the Bye and Bye. Unidentified camp, August 1933.

*Bowlegs (real name unknown): Drink My Morning Tea. Camp 12, August 1933.

*Unidentified men: He Never Said A Mumblin' Word. Unidentified camp, August 1933.

*M.B. Barnes, Louella Dade, Passion Buckner, Alberta Turner, Bertha Riley, Lily Mallard, Christine Shannon, and Josephine Douglas: Oh Freedom. Women's camp, April 1936.

*Big Charlie Butler: Diamond Joe. Unidentified camp, March 1937.

[Bed music:] John Dudley: Cool Drink of Water Blues. Dairy camp, October 1959.

*Mattie May Thomas: Workhouse Blues. Women's camp, May 1939.

*"22" (Benny Will Richardson) and group: It Makes A Long Time Man Feel Bad. Camp B, November or December 1947. *Ervin Webb and group: I'm Goin' Home. Dairy camp, October 1959.

*Johnny Lee Moore, Henry Mason, Ed Lewis and James Carter: Tom Devil. Camp B, October 1959.

[Bed music:] James Carter and group: Poor Lazarus. Camp B, October 1959.

*Unidentified prisoners: Water Boy Drowned In the Mobile Bay. Unidentified camp, August 1968.

*Heuston Earms: Ain't Been Able to Get Home No More / interview. Camp B, October 1959.

Sacred Harp -- the four-part shape-note singing tradition long confined to the American South, but recently enjoying remarkable international popularity and participation -- fascinated and challenged Lomax for most of his career. He recorded it multiple times, trying with increasing technological sophistication to capture its indelible magic. In this episode, we survey Alan's Sacred Harp recordings and the tradition's development, ethos, and survival.

Intro: United Sacred Harp Musical Association Convention: The Bower of Prayer (#100) (Fyffe, Alabama, October 1959)


1. Allison's Sacred Harp Singers: Weeping Pilgrim (417) (Gennett 6583, Richmond, Indiana, 1928)


2. Alabama Sacred Harp Singers: Present Joys (318) (Columbia 15272, Atlanta, Georgia, 1928)

Interstitial: Martha Woodard, Mission (204) (Gadsden, Alabama, June 1982)

3. Alabama Sacred Harp Singing Convention: Ballstown (217) (Jefferson County Courthouse, Birmingham, Alabama, August 1942)


4. United Sacred Harp Musical Association Convention: The Parting Hand (62) + Hallelujah (146) + Amazing Grace (45) (Fyffe, Alabama, October 1959)


Interstitial: Martha Woodard, Murillo's Lesson (358) (Gadsden, Alabama, June 1982)

5. Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers: How Long (Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C., August 1983)

6. Holly Springs Sacred Harp Convention: Help Me to Sing (376) (Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church, H.S., Georgia, June 1982*)

7. Alan Lomax extemporizes on musico-historical dimensions of Sacred Harp, with Phil Summerlin and Buell Cobb (Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church, H.S., Georgia, June 1982)

*An egregious error of chronology was made in this episode: Lomax's last shape-note recordings were in fact of the Wiregrass singers in 1983, as the Holly Springs recording took place in the summer of 1982 and not 1983 as repeatedly stated. Apologies!

1. Sid Hemphill and band: The Carrier Line (or the Carrier song). Sledge, Mississippi, August 1942.

2. Sid Hemphill and Lucius Smith: Going Away, Won't Be Long. Senatobia, Miss., September 1959.

3. Miles and Bob Pratcher: I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die. Como, Miss., 9/59.

4. Fred McDowell with Fanny Davis and Miles Pratcher: Shake 'Em On Down. Como, 9/59.

5. Rosa Lee Hemphill Hill: Faro. Como, 9/59.

6. Sidney Hemphill Carter: Pharoah. Senatobia, 9/59.

7. Ed Young; Lonnie Young, Sr.; G.D. Young: Ida Reed aka Oree aka Little and Low. Como, 9/59.

8. R.L. Burnside: Going Down South. Coldwater, Miss., August 1967. (Recorded by George Mitchell.)

9. R.L. Burnside: Coal Black Mattie. Como, August 1978.

10. Napoleon Strickland: Shake 'Em On Down. Como, 8/78.

11. Lucius Smith: New Railroad. Sardis, Miss., 8/78.

12. Othar Turner and band: My Babe. Gravel Springs, Miss., 8/78.

The Fall 2019 season of the program will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the so-called "Southern Journey" field-recording trip and explore various regions, traditions, and performers Lomax and Collins visited and recorded. This first episode is a (highly cursory) survey.

1. Hobart Smith: Railroad Bill. Bluefield, Virginia, August 25.

2. Texas Gladden: Whole Heap of Little Horses. Salem, Virginia, August 26.

3. Charlie Higgins, Wade Ward, and Bob Carpenter: Did You Ever Seen the Devil, Uncle Joe? Galax, Virginia, August 31.

4. Fred McDowell with Fanny Davis and Miles Pratcher: Gravel Road Blues. Como, Mississippi, September 22.

5. Ed Young, Lonnie Young, Sr., and Lonnie Young, Jr.: Church I Know We Got Another Building. Como, Mississippi, September 21.

6. Ed Lewis and group (consisting of, at least, Wesley Lee Brown, Oscar Crosby, Robert Lewis, Willie Matthews, John Edmonds, Willie P. Roberts, and Henry Mason): I'll Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down. Camp B, Parchman Farm (Mississippi State Penitentiary), September 19 or 20.

7. Vera Ward Hall: Wild Ox Moan. Livingston, Alabama, October 10.

8. Almeda Riddle: Rainbow Mid Life's Willows. Heber Springs, Arkansas, October 6 or 7.

9. Big John Davis and the Spiritual Singers of Coastal Georgia (soon to be renamed the Georgia Sea Island Singers): Moses, Don't Get Lost. St. Simons Island, Georgia, October 12.

1. Villagers of Cáceres, La Mancha: Christmas processional, Christmas Eve 1952

2. Merritt Boddie and Marigolds band: Christmas Machete, Gingerland, Nevis, July 1962

3. Norman Edmonds and the Old-Timers: Breaking Up Christmas, Hillsville, Virginia, August 1959

4. Sophie Loman Wing and group: All Night Long, St. Simons Island, Georgia, June 1935

5. Kelley Pace and prisoners: Holy Babe, Cumins State Farm, near Gould, Arkansas, 1942

6. Vera Ward Hall: No Room At the Inn / Last Month of the Year, Livingston, Alabama, October 1959

7. Phil Tanner: The Gower Wassail, Columbia Studios, London, 1937

8. Shirley and Dolly Collins: The Moon Shines Bright, from “For As Many As Will” (Topic, 1978)

9. 1959 United Sacred Harp Musical Association: Sherburne (#186), Fyffe, Alabama, September 1959

10. Villagers of Hío, Aragon: Buenas Entradas de Reyes, Hío, Galicia, November 1952

11. Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers with Hobart Smith, Nat Rahmings, and Ed Young: Yonder Come Day, St. Simons, Georgia, 1960. Preceded by 1962 discussion about the song between Jones and Antoinette Marchand.

And the complete 1957 BBC broadcast of “Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year,” produced and hosted by Alan Lomax. Songs and performers listed here (although we have edited out Lomax's performance of "No Room At the Inn" for reasons [primarily] of file size).

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Sing-Christmas-And-The-Turn-Of-The-Year/release/6156619

Topical, protest, and resistance songs from Kentucky, Virginia, Arkansas, Trinidad by way of New York City, Oklahoma by way of California, and the Mississippi State Penitentiary, better known as Parchman Farm.

1. Sarah Ogan Gunning: I Hate the Capitalist System. NYC, November 1937.

2. Hobart Smith: Peg and Awl. Bluefield, Virginia, August 1959.

3. Big Bill Broonzy: Black, Brown and White Blues. Decca Studios, NYC, March 1947.

4. Lord Invader: Yankee Dollar. Town Hall, NYC, December 1947.

5. Woody Guthrie: Dust Bowl Refugees. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., March 1940.

6. Nimrod Workman: 42 Years. Mascot, Tennessee, July 1983.

7. Floyd Batts: Dangerous Blues. Parchman Farm Camp 11, Parchman, Mississippi, September 1959.

8. M.B. Barnes & prisoners: Oh Freedom. Parchman Farm Women's Camp, April 1936.

Songs from and/or of the sea (and one Great Lake), from Italy, Scotland, Grenada, the Georgia Sea Islands, and Lake Michigan.

1. Captain A.H. Rasmussen: interview on chanties/Amsterdam Maid (fragment). Recorded in London, 1955.

2. Daniel Aitkens & tombstone feast group: Blow the Man Down. Recorded in La Resource, Carriacou, Grenada, August 1962.

3. Big John Davis, Henry Morrison, and Georgia Sea Island Singers: Hop Along, Let’s Get Her. Recorded in St. Simons Island, Georgia, October 1959.

4. Elizabeth Austin and group: Sailing In the Boat When the Tide Runs Strong. Recorded in Old Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas, 1935.

5. Dominick Gallagher: The Gallagher Boys. Recorded at Beaver Island, Michigan, 1938.

6. Penny Morrison and group: Cha déid mi do dh’fhear gun bhàta (I’ll Not Go To A Man Without A Boat). Recorded at Balivanich, Benbecula, Scotland, June 1951.

7. Michele Ilari and fishermen: Cialomi (tuna fishing chants). Recorded off Agrigento, Sicily, Italy, June 1954.

8. Jean Glaud: Hooray Irena. Recorded in Gouyave, Carriacou, Grenada, August 1962.

9. Lomax interview with Newton Joseph, interspersed with chanteys (“Hi-Lo Boys” and “Long Time Ago”), L’Esterre, Carriacou, 1962.