'Where Have All the Folk Songs Gone': The Alan Lomax Legacy and a Conversation w/ Pete Seeger

A year after his passing, American Routes remembers Alan Lomax, the great folklorist, musicologist and documentarian. While working mostly for the Library of Congress, Lomax made groundbreaking recordings with Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Jelly Roll Morton, Muddy Waters and countless others. Family and friends, contemporaries and musicians recall his many accomplishments. Lomax’s sometime collaborator Pete Seeger took a different route as a singer of folksongs. The great social activist, environmentalist, and banjoman, Pete Seeger speaks of his life in music and social justice—two things he’s brought together for over 60 years.

HOUR ONE

Open Bed: Before This Time Another Year Bessie Jones and Group
Southern Journey Vol.12: Georgia Sea Islands, Rounder

Forest City Jump Forest City Joe
Sounds of the South, Atlantic

Dancing Around the World Lomax Radio

Jimmy Peters and the Ring Dance Singers

Clifton Chenier

CLIP: Jelly Roll Morton INTERVIEW: at the piano in the Library of Congress

Mr. Jelly Lord Jelly Roll Morton
Birth of the Hot, RCA

Instrumental: Midnight Special Jimmy Smith
Midnight Special, Blue Note

Good Morning Blues Lead Belly
Bourgeois Blues, Smithsonian Folkways

Midnight Special Harry Belafonte
Greatest Hits, RCA

CLIP: Sister Rosetta Tharp PSA

CLIP: Woody Guthrie with Alan Lomax at the Library of Congress

Do Re Mi Woody Guthrie
Dust Bowl Ballads, BMG

California Stars Wilco
Mermaid Avenue, Elektra

Instrumental: End Credits Jeff Tweedy & Glenn Kotche
Chelsea Walls soundtrack, Ryko

INTERVIEW: John Cohen

Don't Let Your Deal Go Down New Lost City Ramblers
Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom 1950-1970, Rhino

The Girl I Left Behind Spencer Moore
Alan Lomax Collection Sampler, Rounder

INTERVIEW: Alan Lomax

The Titanic Bessie Jones
Southern Journey Vol.8: Velvet Voices, Rounder

CLIP: Lomax's world music recordings from Spain, Italy, England

Brown Girl in the Ring Caribbean Voyage: Brown Girl in the Ring

Go Down Old Hannah Ernest Williams and Group
Land Where The Blues Began, Rounder

Dancing Around the World Lomax Radio

HOUR TWO

Open Bed: If I Had A Hammer Pete Seeger
Greatest Hits, Columbia

If I Had A Hammer Toussaint McCall
Nothing Takes the Place of You, Fuel 2000

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Johnny Rivers
Anthology 1964-1977, Rhino

Soldier, Soldier Natalie Merchant
The House Carpenter's Daughter, Myth

I've Got a Secret (Didn't We Shake Sugaree) Fred Neil
Everybody's Talkin', Capitol

Shake Sugaree Elizabeth Cotten
Shake Sugaree, Vol.2, Folkways

Sugaree Jerry Garcia
Garcia, Arista

Instrumental: Nashville Skyline Rag Bob Dylan
Nashville Skyline, Columbia

I Ain't Got No Home Bob Dylan
A Tribute to Woody Guthrie, Warner

Don't Think Twice Johnny Cash
The Folk Years: A Singers and Songwriters Collection, Time Life

Stagolee Mississippi John Hurt
The Immortal, Vanguard

Here Am I, Oh Lord, Send Me Alvin Youngblood Heart
Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the music of Mississippi John Hurt, Vanguard

Blowin' in the Wind Steve Wonder
Greatest Hits, Vol.1, Motown

Instrumental: John Henry Tommy Jarrell
The Legacy of Tommy Jarrell Vol.3, County

INTERVIEW: Pete Seeger

Blowin' in the Wind Arlo Guthrie
Live at Alan Lomax Tribute Concert, NYC, April 2003

Midnight Special Pete Seeger and ensemble
Live at Alan Lomax Tribute Concert, NYC, April 2003

End Bed: Amazing Grace John Fahey
America, Takoma

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