Southern Journey

The Southern Journey is the popular name given to a field-recording trip around the Southern States of the US by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. He was accompanied on the trip by his then-lover, English folk singer Shirley Collins.[1] It resulted in the first stereo field-recordings in the Southern United States and the "discovery" of Mississippi Fred McDowell.[2] The music collected on the trip has had a significant impact on the development of popular music. Tracks recorded on the trip were sampled by Moby for his album, Play.[3] It also served as the inspiration for the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers' film, O Brother Where Art Thou.[4] The Southern Journey is the subject of an autobiography by Shirley Collins entitled America Over the Water.[5] It is also the subject of s 2017 feature documentary, The Ballad of Shirley Collins. Lomax's own recollections of the trip were documented in his autobiography, The Land Where Blues Began, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1993.[6]

  1. ^ Piazza, Tom (2013-01-28). "Alan Lomax Southern Journey". Retrieved 2018-09-17.
  2. ^ Petrusich, Amanda (2011-09-23). "Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings". Retrieved 2018-09-18.
  3. ^ Weingarten, Christopher (2009-02-10). ""Play" 10 Years Later: Moby's Track by Track Guide to 1999's Global Smash". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved 2018-09-17.
  4. ^ Marshall, Matt (2011-08-23). "'O Brother' Soundtrack Celebrates Ten Years of Roots". Americanbluesscene.com. Retrieved 2018-09-17.
  5. ^ Collins, Shirley (2004). America Over the Water. SAF Pub. ISBN 978-0-946719-66-2.
  6. ^ "All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists". Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved 2018-09-17.