Library of Congress Assembles Folk Music
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 24, 2004


Filed at 7:05 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Library of Congress has assembled the world's
greatest array of American folk music, dance and stories by acquiring the
collection of Alan Lomax, adding it to recordings made by his father, John
Lomax, beginning more than 70 years ago.

Alan Lomax died in 2002 at 87. He began working with his father when he
was 18.

``If there'd been no Alan Lomax, there'd be no Paul Simon, no Carlos
Santana, no Grateful Dead,'' said Mickey Hart, longtime Grateful Dead
drummer. He is also a collector of folk music and a member of the board of
the American Folklife Center, the library office in charge of the
collection.

Hart believes strongly that all music has a basis in tunes loved by
ordinary people of each culture and is to be understood in relation to
that culture.

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a set of variations to the tune of
``Twinkle, twinkle, little star'' he was working from a French song that
has nothing to do with stars. It's about a child complaining that his
father wants him to think like a grown-up instead of just eating candy.

John Lomax took the initiative of recording such musicians as Huddie
Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly,'' McKinley ``Muddy Waters''
Morganfield and David ``Honeyboy'' Edwards. He recorded hours of Woody
Guthrie's songs and stories.

``Throughout the world,'' said singer Pete Seeger, ``folksong collectors
tend to dig up old bones from one graveyard and put them into another
graveyard -- their filing cabinets. But Alan Lomax and his father John
wanted the American people to once again sing the wonderful old songs of
this country which they never heard on the radio.''

There are 400,000 feet of movie film in the Alan Lomax collection, more
than 5,000 hours of sounds, 2,450 videotapes, 2,000 books and academic
journals and 40 yards of letters, scripts, notes, manuscripts.

Alan Lomax founded the Association for Cultural Equity to foster his aim
of preserving oral traditions, now directed by his daughter, Anna Lomax
Wood. His collection was housed at its headquarters in New York's Hunter
College. The library acquired it with an anonymous donation in an
undisclosed amount."