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.

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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/

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/soundsworthsaving

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