Alan Lomax followed his father, John Lomax’s, trade. Alan made the first recordings of Muddy Waters and allegedly stiffed the bluesman out of the twenty bucks he’d promised for the records. Alan and John discovered and promoted the homocidal songster Lead Belly -- but claimed part-authorship of Mr. Ledbetter’s signature song “Goodnight Irene.” The royalty payments supported A.L. and his research for years. Shady and unethical? Yes. The Lomaxes got Lead Belly out of jail, only to make him work as their chauffer and have him perform in prisoner’s garb. Demeaning? Absolutely. The Lomax model of venerable-folk-musician-as-domestic-help was continued when Alan travelled to Great Britain, where he recorded the astringent keening and banjo playing of Margaret Barry, whom he also employed as a housekeeper. The joke was on Lomax, though: Barry boiled his precious sirloin steaks.

Lomax was a curious figure, often mocked by those who followed him into the folk fray. I’m told that buttons with Lomax’s face with a slash through it were popular at a fiddler’s convention some years ago. He embodied the sanctimony and purism of the folk revival, objecting to Dylan’s electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival. He was a little dorky. Watch one of the videos in his “American Patchwork” series and you’ll see. But you’ll also see great music and amazing insight. The volume on “Cajun Country” contains footage of zydeco musicians juxtaposed with two musicians from (I think) Cape Verde: one playing a button accordion and one strumming a roasting pan with a fork. This is great footage of great music. We can see it because Lomax was, as Dave Marsh calls him in his snotty anti-obit, Mr. Big Stuff. He had the funding, the resources and the juice to go and film two guys on some barren rock off the coast of Africa. Who really cares, in the year 2002, about Dylan “going electric”? Lomax recorded thousands of hours of music that would have otherwise been lost. Great musicians: Hobart Smith, Marcus Martin, the black stringband of Lusk, Gribble and York, Texas Gladden, the Italian tuna fisherman of Calabria and countless other musicians that Dave Marsh never heard of and wouldn’t listen to if he had.