The Land Where Blues Began

by Alan Lomax

Set in an era as harsh and fertile as Delta silt, The Land Where the Blues Began reveals how the river of African-American culture overtook its repressive banks--to give us R & B, soul, rock 'n' roll, and the only purely American art form, the blues. Alan Lomax takes us on an adventure into the "bad old days" of the post-slavery, Jim Crow Mississippi Delta--the birthplace of the blues--when railroads and levees were being built and cotton boomed at the expense of Southern working-class African Americans.  Singing of their misery and their barely concealed rage, the Bluesman enlisted their African heritage to keep their souls alive and in the process created the first satirical song form in the English language.  We meet Muddy Waters (the father of modern blues), learn how Robert Johnson met his end, and are introduced to Fred McDowell and Son House, who taught Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton how to play the blues.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction, Biography, African American, Anthropology, Art

560 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 1993

About the author

Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker.

Reviews

[Anders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me just start off by saying that this book is completely obviously a treasure trove of information for people curious about blues lineages or who'd like to learn more about the "discovery" of the now-canonical old blues figures like Son House, Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and many more. I say discovery in quotation marks because for the most part, these musicians were already relatively well-known within their own communities, but Alan Lomax was the first to go into all these small, isolated communities in Mississippi and record these artists, an act which down the line brought blues music to the attention of the mainstream. Lomax wrote this book in his old age looking back on his experiences recording these artists: he knows he's the shit, you know he's the shit, and that's that.

This is what I was expecting, and this is basically what I got. Lomax is clearly incredibly passionate about this music, and his memories are vivid and clearly told. Also, as the father of modern ethnomusicology, he has the analytic skills to describe the logistics of how the MUSIC of blues music works and draw comparisons to African music, and describe how it differs or is similar to that of other communities. In this respect the book was highly fulfilling. There are a number of compilations of Lomax's work which is covered in this book which I found incredibly rewarding to listen to in conjunction with reading the book (namely "Mississippi: The Blues Lineage" and "Classic Blues" from the Smithsonian Folkways label. Additionally there is literally a partner CD to the book but I wasn't able to get a hold of it through the library system, so I can't comment on it.) This information would be useful to a long-term blues listener just as much as someone engaging with the music for the first time.

I wasn't really expecting this book to be so illuminative of the experience of poor blacks in the Jim Crow South. As a man of liberal allegiances, Lomax's stories about the difficulty of entering communities and speaking to black people are told with lucidity and a fierce sense of social justice. On these plantations, and in the prisons and work-camps, Lomax was uniquely positioned to see the realities of these situations. His reflections are rare glimpses into a fascinating underbelly of American society, one which in mainstream history is still mostly swept under the carpet-- after slaves had technically been freed, but before any efforts had been made to revise the social order in the South.

[Roy Lotz · Rating 3 out of 5]

It pains me to be writing a lukewarm review of this, Alan Lomax’s most important book, as I have a great deal of respect for the man. Simply put, you cannot write the story of American music without mentioning Alan Lomax’s name. He devoted his entire life to the study and dissemination of folk music, often with no institutional backing, little money, and only a modicum of fame—and in the process he helped to preserve and disseminate music of the highest caliber. Muddy Waters, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, and even Bob Dylan owe a measure of their success to Alan Lomax.

Unfortunately, I think this book does not do justice to his accomplishments. Published in 1995, it is mainly focused on his collecting expeditions in the 1940s—an enormous time gap explained by his inability to find a publisher when he first came up with the idea for this book. It also incorporates articles and pieces written at different times for different purposes, and as a result is rather disorganized. Large sections of the books are taken up with transcriptions of interviews, with little context or explanation. Further, when Lomax does offer his views, he too often lapses into a kind of romanticization of the black experience which hardly sheds light on the subject.

Of course, there are gems scattered throughout the book—fantastic and funny lyrics, revealing anecdotes, tall tales. Perhaps the best that can be said of it is that the book often feels like the liner notes to a great album. But I think Lomax’s recordings and his documentaries are far better testaments to his life’s work. And if you would like to read a book about this remarkable man, John Szwed’s biography of Lomax covers far more ground while being considerably shorter.

To watch his American Patchwork documentaries, click here:
https://www.folkstreams.net/filmmaker...

His archive of recordings have been turned into the Global Jukebox, a worldwide sampling of musical cultures:
https://theglobaljukebox.org/

[Thomas Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Land Where the Blues Began, Alan Lomax (1915-2002), 1993, 539 pages, Dewey 781.643097624, ISBN 0679404244

Lomax recounts his experiences recording blues musicians in the Mississippi Delta in 1942, when he was age 27. And 1948, 1959, 1960, 1967, 1978, pp. 326-357, 473, 474. Has lyrics of "Midnight Special" and other penitentiary songs. p. 312. Some of the convicts on the penal farms spoke about their lives. pp. 287-313. Lyrics to versions of Old Rattler, Old Stewball, Frankie and Albert, Ollie Jackson, The Roguish Man, Boll Weevil, I Be's Troubled, that aren't in the text, pp. 483-492. Book list 509-514. Discography 515-518. Filmography 518-522. [And don't forget The Blues Brothers, 1980, Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/ ]

Blues singer Bessie Smith bled to death in Clarksdale, Mississippi after a car wreck, without medical attention, as three Clarksdale hospitals refused to admit her because she was black. p. 61.

"All of my girls got married by thirteen." --Ola, cotton farmer, Mississippi Delta. p. 99. "For the great majority of Delta women, battered or lonely, religion was the remedy. In church, Delta women could show their community that, in spite of living on the lip of hell, tempted to give way to promiscuity, drunkenness, child neglect, and rage, they had maintained their integrity. They testified before everyone that they were still pure of heart, emotionally resilient, women to be depended on." p. 101.

The last paddlewheel riverboat was built in 1927; it burned in 1942. Two roustabouts could carry a kicking, bucking mule up the gangplank. p. 146. In black Africa there never had been either wheeled vehicles or animal transport. p. 154.

Civil War through WWI, America had a mania for brass band music. p. 163. Marches and waltzes. p. 165.

The Mississippi River levee is higher and longer than the Great Wall of China, likely the biggest thing man has ever made: more than 1000 miles, Cairo, Illinois, past New Orleans. Largely built by black mule-drivers. p. 212. In March to May 1541, DeSoto saw the river in flood, 60 leagues wide, only the tops of the tallest trees above water. p. 213. "We was watchin' for people from Arkansas trying to put a hole in /our/ levee, to take the pressure off theirs. The constable said, if you see a skiff coming, shoot. We tied plows around the Arkansas men's necks, rowed them out, and dropped them in." pp. 220-221.

In the levee camps and penal farms, "a nigger wasn't worth as much as a mule." p. 233.

In their peak year, 1930, more than 300,000 mules were plowing Mississippi fields. p. 240. "A mule will work for you for 10 years in order to kick you once." --William Faulkner.

John & Alan Lomax recorded singing in black state prisons of all Southern states, 1933-1947. p. 261.

It take the man with the most understandin to make the best leader at anything. p. 262.

It was the quixotically humane practice at Parchman, as in other Southern penitentiaries, to allow well-behaved convicts the opportunity and the privacy to cohabit with their feminine visitors on weekends. p. 264.

"It takes a man that have the blues to sing the blues." --Leadbelly. pp. 273-274.

"The women all on fast time. If you ain't got no scratch, they won't bother with you." --David Edwards. p. 397.

"I was born in Mississippi, my daddy brought me to Arkansas.
What can you do with a woman, when she won't gee or haw?"
--See, See, Rider, p. 428

In World War I, "the colored boys found out they was getting different rations from the white boys; the colored boys raised sand at the mess hall and so they shipped um to the front right away." --Big Bill Broonzy, p. 434.

Chicago foundry work:
"Me and a white man, working side by side,
This is what I meant,
He was getting a dollar an hour,
I was getting fifty cents."
--Big Bill Broonzy, p. 442.

Record-company producers bragged about how they cheated their black musicians. p. 446.

"I'm just like a piano player,
Carry nothin but my hat.
I plays women where I find um,
And I leaves um where I plays um at."
--Big Bill Broonzy, p. 450.






The book answers these questions:

https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...

Fisk University, Nashville, was the most prestigious black college in the South. pp. xi-xiii, 24-25, 28, 39-42, 65, 526.

permalink https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/Tom...

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[Mercedes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bless Alan Lomax and his old recorder for capturing the music and oral histories of 30's to 40's Mississippi Delta.

[Nd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable piece of scholarship. It was not an easy read, but I found nothing to omit or skip because it's all interesting and Alan Lomax's 1930s and 1940s research is all integral to putting "blues" in its place in the world. He extensively and as methodically as possible spent years of exploration in the southern delta interviewing and recording the stories of black musicians of all types who created and performed music to sustain and frequently to preserve their lives under hard and adverse circumstances. The treatment and degradation of blacks who slaved to build the region around the Mississippi, most of whom lived in the harshest of circumstances, was so barbaric that Lomax was run out of a number of places for even having the temerity to think their musical contributions were worthy of noting. As was told to him more than once by the men working the delta who were treated no better than slaves, harming the boss man's mule drew much harsher punishment than killing a workman. He quickly learned that the only way he could meet with blacks and keep himself or them safe while doing so was to first check in with law enforcement as soon as he arrived in a town. Sometimes even that didn't work and he was quickly sent on down the road.

From each bluesman Lomax interviewed, he would get a tip about someone they considered better or a different style, and these he pursued deeply into southern back country. His fieldwork was talking with and recording sharecroppers, levee builders, railroad builders, prisoners and former prisoners, farmers, preachers, storytellers, and bluesmen. Many made their own instruments and Lomax identified and linked specific rhythms and styles, some of which heralded back to Africa and other countries around the world.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lomax was not a perfect man, but he was a man of his time, and oh, what would we have done without his work?

He might not be a father to the blues so much as a shepherd of it, tending to it by documenting these songs and stories so that we might know the real roots of the blues, before it became just another boutique form for white kids who enjoy expensive guitars. The stories from the levee camps are particularly shocking, as a brutal America dependent on vigilante justice, unspoken codes, and something just this side of slave labor was alive and well even in the 1930s and 40s.

It's all brought to life in a very thoughtful and respectful narrative from Lomax, who is wise (and who finds his most effective work) to let his subjects speak for themselves. And about those subjects: Son House, Muddy Waters, and more.

Stories and lineages you've never heard about. A deep river of song. This is all well worth reading and knowing, and it's a genuine pleasure that Lomax shared this work in his time.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read, but I can't help but wonder how much dialog between the bluesman Lomax magically created. He spoke to mythical people and apparently could recount word-for-word what each of them said? He makes himself out to be pretty charismatic as well. I didn't question this one as much as I should have when I first read it about 20 years ago. Listen to Son House's Legendary 1969 'Last Sessions' now for a taste of genius.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Lomax's book cover the deep nature, history, sound, and cultural significance of the Delta Blues through interviews with musicians. The importance of his work in interviewing and recording the songs and stories of prisoners, levee camp workers, sharecroppers, roustabouts, muleskinners, and railroad workers can not be under emphasized by anyone who wants to truly understand the nature and impact of the blues. This book is a fascinating piece of deeply meaningful history, and like a strong blues song, it's a tragic joy to partake in.

[Chadwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this a fascinating account of the roots of the blues, told in the voices of the people that were its living architects, but Alan Lomax's love for his interviewees and his real sympathy for their hard, hard lives rings through on every page. Lomax is personally responsible for saving some of the greatest folk musics of the world from being completely lost, and we owe him immensely for this grand service.

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book reminds of Seamus Ennis' field diaries, except Lomax is constantly driven to find ways of describing music and occasionally the prose simply takes off. At other times you can feel it failing to get there, as when he tries to describe Son House's voice. It works as travel narrative, evoking the delta, and fixing a time and a place where it was dangerous for a white man with a recorder to be seen talking with "non whites". It's easy to forget that Lomax was risking a great deal in his search for oral history.

The book is a mine of information and is liberally scattered with lyrics and the words of sermons and stories and personal memories. Lomax is at his best when he simply frames something and sets back and let it speak for itself.

At once a record of the blues, with stroll on parts by a number of the great names: mixed with Lomax's pet theory about the African tradition underwriting it, but also a depressing description of the appalling treatment of one group of people in what was laughably called a 'civilised society'.

Lomax recorded, amongst other things, one of my favourite performances. The story is in here. The book is probably essential reading for anyone who loves the music.

[Toby Galloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book, partly about the birth of the blues but more directly about the Mississippi Delta, as the title suggests. There is certainly enough material about musicians like Big Bill Broonzy, Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Son House and others to satisfy the blues enthusiast. But where the book really excels is in its descriptions of life in the levee camps and depictions of Jim Crow outrages and indignities. Lomax was a brilliant ethnomusicologist, as revealed in his explanations of African musical styles as they appeared in the American south and across the world. As another reader wrote, Lomax was a man of his time, and his prose occasionally strikes a false note to the modern ear, but this book is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of the post-Reconstruction south and the hugely influential music of that time and place.

[Anthony Vaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn't just about the Blues; it is also about race relations. Alan Lomax's stories about how he tracked down and recorded Delta blues artists--and the challenges he faced as a white man while doing so--are fascinating. While Jim Crow in part created these highly talented Delta musicians, it also denied many of them the opportunity to pursue a musical career. By recording their songs, Lomax gives us a unique opportunity to experience in a deep and immediate way the social conditions of the Mississippi Delta.

As an interesting side note: the cover to my copy of the book is the same as the one pictured above, except that the striped convict pants of Bama, the pictured musician, have been changed to appear like regular jeans.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite music history book and an incredibly interesting social history of the Southern United States.
Alan Lomax made one of the most remarkable contributions to folk and oral history in the 20th Century and was undoubtedly responsible for the discovery and rise to prominence of countless blues and folk musicians. This book gives a very rare insight into what life was like for African American musicians in the South; as well as detailing the many difficulties (including threat on their lives) that Lomax and his team endured to produce their incredible recordings.

[Gina M Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edition came with an extremely short CD which was somewhat disappointing as there was so much content covered, exhaustive in fact, and all of it fascinating to me, that I wish they had used all of the space of the CD for recordings and examples, such as different styles of blues, female blues artists of the time (such as Vera Hall and others). All in all a highly recommended book to BUY and own to refer to again and again, but don't buy the CD version if the cost is higher, it is not worth it for 15 minutes of music, sorry.

[Vagabond Geologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. As a blues fan, I've read quite a bit about the genre and I thought I had good understanding of the environment from which the music came but I was wrong. If you like the music, or you want to have a more profound understanding of race relations in the American south after the Civil War, this book is highly recommended. Occasionally Lomax come across as a white, middle-class liberal, and he is certainly a purist when it comes to the music, but I think it's safe to say that this book changed my views on a good many things.

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ive bought this book soo many times because it's awesome and i inevitably move and forget to recon my books from everyone.
It's slow as hell, but if you like roots music it's a good pal. i know there's also a cd (possibly two) that goes along with it. Great read if you know who charlie patton is. (im a dork.)

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true monument of American cultural history - a must-read, whether or not you have the slightest curiosity for the roots of the blues. Lomax's harrowing tales of the brutally segregated mid-century South are as core to this book as his meandering journey through juke joints, black stringband sessions, and fife-and-drum picnics. A true masterpiece, magnum opus, and national treasure.

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lomax was a Shakespearean character - a hero with enormous flaws, one of which is his positively gushing purple prose writing style. To be read by American folk roots fans with a degree of caution, and easy access to some of hundreds of hours of sublime music he recorded, because without these constant reminders you may find yourself thinking disgraceful thoughts like "why am I reading a book by this tedious old windbag?"

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone even remotely interested in the blues.

[Carlos Repuestodelatabla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading. Definitive. Revelatory.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is church.

[Ida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing stories! As if you are there..

[Dino Ogunsanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Land Where the blues began, by Alan Lomax, set in post-slavery America, is a book that delves into the culture of the deep south.The book tells the story of Alan Lomax traveling to the deep south to record blues for Washington D.C. He goes from county to plantation finding the best Blues musicians of the delta. It shows the true colors of being black, and dealing with oppression at the peak of racism. While also showing the pride and risk of being a delta negro singing blues. This book captures you with its fact filled lines and you forget it's a nonfiction book.
I really enjoyed the authenticity of this novel, it left nothing to imagination. All of the accounts in the book were first hand, because Lomax recorded all of his conversations. I really enjoyed all of the book, but one of the most memorable scenes were the stories being told at the barbershop. The clients twisted their words to tell metaphoric “lies”, or tales, of oppression. This scene was so important because it teaches one how to laugh at himself/ herself.
I disliked how frequent, and how long the tangents in the book were. It made the novel somewhat difficult to read. It's long drawn out stories made the book somewhat tiring and dull. I also disliked how cyclical the formatting of the novel, which made length of the story long-winded. The long-winded passages made a 560 page book seem like 1000.
I highly recommend this book, although I am giving it a 4 star rating. It was a very enjoyable book with many high points, that gives you a perspective on what blues music and post-slavery America was like. This books is filled with life lessons, and heart-grabbing tales. Although it may ramble the book is still an easy favorite, and an easy read. If the stories told weren't disjointed, or wordy at places this book would be an easy 5 star book.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most books on the subject begin with the blues, give a nod to its origins and then proceed forward through the history of the blues. Lomax tacks somewhat differently. It isn't until you are over 300 pages in that he even discusses a blues artist. This books is about the American music that led to, and culminated in, the blues. It's a study of America and its music before blues even appeared on the scene. To that extent it's a pretty interesting read. The muleskinners who built the Mississippi levee are really fascinating as are the rare fife/panpipe and drum groups that existed in the hills around the Delta. Fair warning though there is a bit controversy with Lomax. Some of this book has been definitively refuted and there's an argument that he didn't give enough credit to the researchers at Fisk University or his partner at the time for their work in making his field research possible. Personally, I had more of a problem with some of his descriptions and characterizations. Nothing I could put my finger on, but they didn't always sit quite right.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a quick read and the prose is quite heavy, but it's also a portrait of the American South from someone with an absolutely unique perspective. Lomax had probably 50 or 60 full years of his life that were completely unique to him.

I've long known Lomax's field recordings and imagined what the trips were like to make those recordings. He fleshes a lot of that out but what I didn't know was that he also interviewed the musicians he recorded and from that and his own experience he weaves a fascinating picture of what the South must have been like at the time.

This book is about a lot more than just the blues--it's about work songs, prison songs, hollers, spirituals and hymns as well. It covers all of the African-American music of the South, at least up through the '50s.

I'd recommended this to anyone with an interest in traditional American music or the socio-economic situation in the South during the first half of the 20th century.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this best when Lomax lets the stories flow. I have no idea whether all the stories are precisely true, but they sound authentic. At other times, there is something that annoys me about Lomax's writing. I'm not sure exactly what it is. Perhaps he is just a man from too different a time and place than I am.

By the end of the book, I thought that Lomax thought he was the only white man who could come close to understanding the 'real' blues and that the 'real' blues were diminished whenever they came in contact with life outside the Delta. This left a sour taste in my mouth. The professional musicians who developed music based on blues motifs and lyrics may not have produced 'real' blues, but they have produced some wonderful music and there's really no need to knock them for not being African enough or poor enough or wild enough or whatever enough to fit inside a little box labeled "authentic blues."

[Jake Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Land Where the Blues Began is a book that details the journey of the author, Alan Lomax, throughout the South to find the greatest names to ever sing the blues. Lomax carries with him his recording equipment and the knowledge that he had to find the next big name in blues. Along the way he meets some major names like Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, and more. While this is a book about music in the 30's and 40's, almost every time he speaks with an artist, they bring up something about how white people have negatively affected their career or even life. Alan Lomax is in a group of few white men who are not racist in the south and that is exactly what the blues needed at the time. It needed a voice to get the country on the blues train.

I liked a lot about this book, like the main character and the overall plot. Lomax built a connection with me because he was the one white man in the entire south who wasn't racist, and talked with the blues greats and broke social norms all for the love of music. Being a musician myself, I feel like I owe Lomax something because I might not be in the musical standpoint without him. He made the small names in the south to names that will be remembered for centuries. He made the pioneers of music big enough to evolve music to where it is now.

There were a few things about the book I disliked. I feel there may have been a little too much fluff and I found it hard to keep turning the pages sometimes. There were just some things he could have left out. He talked a little bit too much about travel and it seemed like he talked with every person who had ever talked to the musician (which might be you thing I just got a little tired of it). One thing about the book I didn't like was not even the book's fault. Being reminded about the racism in that setting is always a disappointment, from me living in the south.

So the 4 star rating. I felt the pros outweighed the cons and it was an overall good book to read. I feel more educated and aware of my musical history thanks to Alan Lomax. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has time and patience.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Lomax was the country's foremost recorder of black folk music and blues at their source and at a time in the deep south when no one else was interested or able to do it. With this incredibly detailed book he also became the foremost chronicler of the lives and times of the black musicians who wrote and performed that music. With his recording equipment not only was he able to capture the music, but also the life stories, in their own words, of many of those who made it. As casual reading, the book is way too long, but as a record of an era and its people, it's a masterpiece and a gold mine for musicologists. The times and characters which Lomax captures here are gone forever, but thanks to him, can never be forgotten.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the definitive book on the genre (Get over the fact that your favorite artists probably won’t get much pagetime; my beloved Mississippi John Hurt isn’t even mentioned once), but a glorious love letter from its key promulgator. Strip away all the prose and you’ve still got a garden of blues verse. I put the book a notch below “modern classic” because it’s a tad too freewheeling for its own good. You get the feeling Lomax could have separated the memoir from the music study from the oral history, toiled away at each separately, and come up with three great books instead of one.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on the Blues and the conditions that spawned them from a man who took the time to research it when almost no other white people (besides his father) cared. After almost 50 years of "Affirmative Action" one might think that black people should be better off today than they are. This book outlines just HOW BAD things were in the 30's, 40's, and 50's for blacks, and parts of this book are brutal and ugly because that's how much of life for them was. In fact, I had to put the book down for awhile and come back to it later because of this. And that's NINETEEN 30's, 1940's, and 1950's, not EIGHTEEN 30's, etc., long after slavery, but during the time when Jim Crow ruled. Lomax can get a bit tiresome and wordy (another reason I had to put the book aside for a while), over intellectualizing music that relies so much on pure emotion, but all in all, this book is very thoroughly researched and a must read if you are at all interested in this most American form of music and some of the people who made it.