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Preserving America's musical heritage

Voices From The American South - Blues, Ballads, Hymns, Reels, Shouts, Chanteys And Work Songs
Voices From The American South – Blues, Ballads, Hymns, Reels, Shouts, Chanteys And Work Songs
By various artists

Rounder Records: 1997

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61 Highway Mississippi - Delta Country Blues, Spirituals, Work Songs & Dance Music
61 Highway Mississippi – Delta Country Blues, Spirituals, Work Songs & Dance Music
By various artists

Rounder Records: 1997

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Bad Man Ballads - Songs Of Outlaws And Desperadoes
Bad Man Ballads – Songs Of Outlaws And Desperadoes
By various artists

Rounder Records: 1997

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Ballads And Breakdowns - Songs From The Southern Mountains
Ballads And Breakdowns – Songs From The Southern Mountains
By various artists

Rounder Records: 1997

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Brethren, We Meet Again - Southern White Spirituals
Brethren, We Meet Again – Southern White Spirituals
By various artists

Rounder Records: 1997

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Sheep, Sheep, Don'tcha Know The Road? - Southern Music, Sacred And Sinful
Sheep, Sheep, Don'tcha Know The Road? – Southern Music, Sacred And Sinful
By various artists

Rounder Records: 1997

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This review first appeared in the May 30, 1997 issue of the North County Times.

Almost 40 years ago, veteran folk music chronicler Alan Lomax (son of John Lomax, also a prolific recorder of folk music) set out with a portable tape recorder to capture America's indigenous musics before they disappeared. He had spent time abroad recording in England and Ireland, but had returned home to try to preserve America's native music before it was swallowed up by television and the interstate highways. Over a two-year period (1959-60), he recorded 80 hours of folk music in the South, where much of America's folk styles – gospel, blues and bluegrass, to name just three – had been born and still resided.

Rounder Records is reissuing many of Lomax's recordings in a series of themed collections; the first, with half of its CDs out now, is titled "Southern Journey." Six discs are out now, with another seven yet to come.

Sold individually, the six discs cover both black and white traditions, and span the South both geographically and culturally.

Some of the more interesting recordings came about when Lomax paired white and black musicians together for a TV project on colonial times; he rolled tape during rehearsal, and the results show how closely related white and black rural musics are. But perhaps the highlights come during the spoken introductions to some of the songs where Lomax asks the musicians to talk about themselves.

The first volume, "Voices From The American South – Blues, Ballads, Hymns, Reels, Shouts, Chanteys And Work Songs," is kind of an overview over the entire Southern Journey series, with tracks representing the other discs. It is a good place to start exploring this collection. As with all the discs, the accompanying booklet contains vast amounts of biographical information of Lomax and the individual performers – many of them lost to history but for these recordings.