Lomax Influence On American Culture

Maddie Guzaitis
Response Paper 2
John and Alan Lomax were a father-son duo who were considered the “premier American folk collectors of the twentieth century” and were credited as both creators and contaminators of folk-song heritage (Filene 1991: 603-4). As some of the most prominent producers and recorders of folk music at the time, the Lomaxes shaped the American folk-song heritage by only recording songs that fit the “particular brand of old fashioned, rural folk music that they felt exemplified the country’s creativity and vitality” and ignored songs that strayed from this brand (Filene 1991: 604). Once they discovered their brand of folk music, the John and Alan Lomax would alter “the music’s rough edges” and then promote a false representation

The Lomaxes’ brand of folk music was intended to draw on Americans’ sense of national pride during the Great Depression was used to prove that there is a United States culture (Filene 1991: 606). To accomplish this, they created a strategy that ensured that the folk music they recorded would be in its purest form by searching for songs and artists “in the ‘eddies of human society,’ self-contained homogeneous communities cut off from the corrupting influences of popular music”, which included locations such as “remote cotton plantations, cowboy ranches, lumber camps, and, with particular success, southern segregating prisons” (Filene 1991: 605). The Lomaxes created a folk-song heritage that promoted folk artists as pure, untouched by popular culture and music, and as a voice for the common man (Filene 1991: 610). Leadbelly, discovered by the Lomaxes while serving time for murder, was promoted as both pure and a voice for the common man all while be promoted as a “savage, untamed animal” due to his time in prison (Filene 1991:

They lamented black culture and lamented the injustice that helped to shape it, but they dd not challenge the system of segregation that produced the injustice” (Filene 1991: 609). John and Alan Lomax’s treatment of Leadbelly perfectly depicts this attitude. The Lomaxes viewed Leadbelly as a way to revive the traditions of old-time music that was lost to popular music (Filene 1991: 609). As mentioned before, Leadbelly’s persona depicted a pure artist who was a voice for the people while also playing into his past as a convict. The press reported that he was “a slow-witted, hulking man, motivated only by a drive for sex and violence”, but the people who actually met him reported that he was gentle and had an “overall aristocratic appearance and demeanor” (Filene 1991: 610). This violent depiction went along with African American stereotypes at the time. Additionally, the Lomaxes would keep all of Leadbelly’s concert earnings and would offer Leadbelly room and board as payment instead, as well as using the artist as their personal chauffeur and servant (Filene 1991: 610-11). The Lomaxes insisted that Leadbelly “had no idea of money, law, or ethics and who was possessed of virtually no restraint” (Filene 1991: 610). Eventually, Leadbelly demanded change or he