Twenty Thousand Hertz
The Song Hunter: How Alan Lomax saved the sounds of America
This episode isn’t summarized yet
Create a free account and summarize it. In a few minutes you’ll have the key takeaways and a section-by-section summary.
Show notes
Alan Lomax believed that the culture of poor Americans was important and worthy of saving. So he spent decades traveling the American South and recording obscure musicians on their front porches, in churches, even in prisons. Today, he's considered an American icon, but the road to becoming a legend wasn't an easy one. Featuring Southern Historical Collection archivist Chaitra Powell, American Folklife Center curator Todd Harvey, and filmmaker Rogier Kappers.
Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by Defacto Sound.
Subscribe on YouTube to see our video series.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
Support the show and get ad-free episodes at 20k.org/plus.
Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Join our community on Reddit.
Discover more at lexus.com/curiosity.
Archival recordings in this episode came from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, courtesy of the Association for Cultural Equity.
Check out Rogier's documentary "Lomax the Songhunter" on Amazon.
For more information on the crowdsourcing project for transcribing Alan Lomax's notes, visit https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/alan-lomax/
Subscribe to The Wind where ever you get your podcasts.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/soundsworthsaving
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices