Been All Around This World

Been All Around This World

"Been All Around This World" explores the breadth and depth of folklorist Alan Lomax's seven decades of field recordings. From the earliest trips he made through the American South with his father, John A. Lomax, beginning in 1933, to his last documentary work in the early 1990s, the program will pr...

24 - Shouts on the Threshing Floor: Work Songs
Been All Around This World
24 - Shouts on the Threshing Floor: Work Songs

Recent Episodes

Oct. 1, 2024

24 - Shouts on the Threshing Floor: Work Songs

A survey of work songs from around the world, recorded by Alan and John A. Lomax. We narrow the definition of work song to mean specifically those sung to assist in or accompany actual jobs of work. Visit our brand new work song exhibit here. Playlist (links to catalog records in the Lomax Digital Archive when available): 1a Alla Boara 1b A Mezzononte en Punto 2 Walter Brown on Privileged Penitentiary https://archive.culturalequity.org/film-and-video/american-patchwork/greenville-levee-197
July 11, 2024

23 - MIX: Alan Lomax in Carriacou, 1962

Been All Around This World has a new co-host! ACE Program Coordinator and Been All Around This World producer Michael Cormier-O'Leary joins Curator Nathan Salsburg in bringing you new episodes of this podcast. We are expanding the show's format to include episodes like today's, which is a continuous mix of music, mixed in with our deeper dives. This will allow us to release content more frequently while still developing longer form explorations of material within the collection. In the wake of
March 1, 2024

22 - When I Get Home: Sacred songs from the 1939 Texas recordings

The last episode of our survey of John A. and Ruby T. Lomax's 1939 Texas recordings features highlights of sacred performances in the collection. 1) Eulalia Martinez, Paola Lopez, Genoveva Lopez: Gloria a Diós en las alturas (Sugarland, Fort Bend County, Texas, April 23, 1939) 2) Gonzalo Lopez, Cleofe Lopez: Vela por tu amante (Sugarland, Fort Bend County, Texas, April 23, 1939) 3) Iron Head Baker: This Heart of Mine (Camp #4, Ramsey State Farm, Otey, Brazoria County, Texas, April 23, 1939)
Dec. 18, 2023

21 - Songs of Christmas, Midwinter, and New Year

An admittedly cursory holiday mix presenting performances from our new digital release, "Songs of Christmas, New Year, and Midwinter from the Lomax Collection," available now on the Lomax Archive's Bandcamp page as well as the streaming services. We invite you to pair this mix with our older holiday-themed episode, which features other related material (if some occasional overlap) and the complete "Sing Christmas" program. This ambitious radio broadcast was produced by Alan for the BBC on Chris
Nov. 28, 2023

20 - Inspiration: Instrumentalists from the 1939 Texas recordings

Fiddlers, harp blowers, and guitarists recorded by John A. and Ruby T. Lomax during their 1939 Texas field-trip. 1) Frank Goodwyn & Manuel Salinas: Chinese Breakdown (Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas, April 29, 1939) 2) Lake Porter: The Lost Girl (Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas, April 29, 1939) 3) Lake Porter: Drunken Hiccups (Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas, April 29, 1939) 4) Elmo Newcomer: Rye Whiskey (The home of Elmo Newcomer, Pipe Creek, Bandera County, Texas, May 3, 1939) [see her
Nov. 2, 2023

19 - Go to Sleepy Little Baby: Lullabies from the Alan Lomax Collection

The Lomax Collection reflects a variety of human experience—from the sacred to the profane, from the rural to the urban, and from the public square to the domestic scene. The Lomaxes recorded lullabies all over the world, creating a record of the universality of these particularly intimate moments between parents and children. This episode gathers some of our favorite lullabies from the archive, and is part of a larger project on the subject, which includes an exhibit on the Lomax Digital Archiv