The Alan Lomax Collection - Popular Songbook

Since Alan Lomax spent his life traveling American and European backroads in search of genuine folk songs, it's difficult to think of his name in conjunction with popular music. Popular Songbook, though, asks the listener to do just that, and the collection's reasoning for doing so is a sound one. A number of songs Lomax gathered on his collecting trips later became popular hits by other artists. One imagines that many of these songs -- "Midnight Special," "Black Betty," and "Rock Island Line" -- would have stayed in their respective hollows without his efforts. Read More