V/A- Wave The Ocean, Wave The Sea: Field Recordings From Alan Lomax's "Southern Journey", 1959-1960 (Mississippi Records, MSR-057)

"People were saying that Southern folk song was dead, that the land that had produced American jazz, the blues, the spirituals, the mountain ballads and the work songs had gone sterile."

-Alan Lomax. 1960

In 1959 and 1960, at the height of the Folk Revival, Alan Lomax undertook the first-ever stereo field recording trip through the American South to document its still thriving vernacular musical culture. He traveled through Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina, making over 70 hours of recordings. The trip came to be known as Lomax's "Southern Journey," and its recordings were first issued for the Atlantic and Prestige labels in the early '60s. Those, however, as well as subsequent releases on New World and Rounder Records, are now all out of print. To remedy this, and to celebrate the Southern Journey's 50th anniversary, Mississippi Records and the Alan Lomax Collection have collaborated on five commemorative LPs, spanning the breadth of Lomax's '59-60 Southern recordings, drawing on new transfers of the original 1/4" tapes, and featuring a considerable amount of previously unreleased material.

All recordings made by Alan Lomax on an Ampex 602-2, "Suitcase Model" tape machine. Assisted by Shirley Collins (1959) and Anna Lomax (1960).



Wave The Ocean, Wave The Sea is the first of five Alan Lomax LPs issued by Mississippi Records in 2010. This series was compiled and annotated by Nathan Salsburg in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the "Southern Journey." 320 vinyl rip by yours truly.

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Preorder from Dustygroove.

1. Chilly Winds / Wade Ward 1:29
2. Lonely Tombs / Texas Gladden, Hobart Smith & Preston Young 2:49
3. Church, I Know We Got Another Building / Ed Young, Lonnie Young & G.D. Young 2:24
4. Sherburne (#186) / United Sacred Harp Convention 1:55
5. Reg'lar, Reg'lar, Rolling Under / Bessie Jones & Group 2:27
6. Dollar Mamie / Floyd Batts & prisoners 5:27
7. Bob Johnson's Tune / George Fields 2:11
8. Dark Day / Silver Leaf Quartet 2:28
9. Whole Heap of Little Horses / Texas Gladden 1:30
10. Drink On Little Girl / Forrest City Joe & His Three Aces 4:23
11. Early in the Morning / Johnny Lee Moore 2:59
12. Pretty Polly Oliver / Ollie Gilbert 2:37
13. Wave The Ocean, Wave The Sea / Neal Morris & Charlie Everidge 1:40
14. Gravel Road Blues / Fred McDowell & Fanny Davis 4:26
15. Riding in a Buggy / Vera Ward Hall 2:13
16. On WEUP Huntsville / Daddy Cool 4:07

"Some of the young folkniks, who dominated the New York scene, asserted that there was more folk music in Washington Square on Sunday Afternoon than there was in all rural America. Apparently, it made them feel like heroes to believe that they were keeping a dying tradition alive. The idea that these nice young people, who only just beginning to learn how to play and sing in good style, might replace the glories of the real thing, frankly horrified me. I resolved to prove them wrong."