Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip

In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file.

Go directly to the collection, Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

In 1939, John and Ruby Lomax traveled the southern United States, recording nearly 700 examples of folk music and oratory which, along with photographs and fieldnotes, comprise the online collection, Southern Mosaic. Together, these materials portray life in the rural South from the late nineteenth century through the 1930s. For folk songs, transmitted orally, are communally created and re-created through time and generations and thus reflect multiple time periods.

For a narrative description of the Lomaxes' trip and for background on folk music, students should refer to an article, "Southern Mosaic" in the Library of Congress's online "Information Bulletin."    

1) The African-American Experience of the South

Though dating from the late 1930s, this collection reflects the African-American experience in the South during the period between Reconstruction and 1941. The songs the Lomaxes collected come out of a place that had changed very little since the Reconstruction era, though it was on the brink of great transformation. The war years that followed inaugurated a period of economic growth and political change that culminated in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Teachers should preview some of these materials, particularly their language, to determine how much background about cultural differences of the past students will need in order to understand this collection appropriately.

Henry Truvillion is foreman of a work gang for Wier Lumber Company, whose headquarters are at Wiergate, Texas . . . One evening later in the week we returned and set up our machine with batteries in the Truvillion living-room. We tried to persuade Henry to go with us to our hotel in Newton, where we could hitch on to electricity, but he refused. He said frankly that he was afraid, --afraid that such a visit to a white people's hotel might cause trouble for him after we were gone.

Pages 169-170, Section 13 of the Fieldnotes

Prisoner in camp hospital. . . .		One particularly powerful documentation of racism and the African-American experience of the South is the collection's images, songs, lyrics, and notes, which reflect prison conditions for African-American inmates. Do a keyword search and full-text search of convicts, inmates, prisons, and chain gang to locate the materials that comprise this highlight of the collection.
		"We Don't Have No Payday Here"	"Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad" "Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad"

The variety of materials in this collection reflect the cultural life of African Americans in the South. Browse Photo and Audio Subject Indexes as well as the Fieldnotes for materials documenting religion, work, rural lifestyle, children's play, and music. Or, locate African-American songs organized by geographical region by referring to the Special Presentation, "The 1939 Recording Expedition".
. . . children playing singing games, Eatonville, Florida "Seed Tick"

Stavin' Chains playing guitar and singing . . . Lafayette, La..		Mrs. Tartt had told us about the Tartt family of Negroes that lived in the Boyd, Alabama community. She had heard the group sing together with beautiful effect. Because of the rain she thought they would not be working in the field and drove the seventeen miles or more to their farm home to bring them in to sing. She was told at their house that "Sim an' them is huntin' fish". Mrs. Tartt walked through the mud down to the river, calling as she went, to locate them the sooner. Finally she heard a startled whisper, "Dat's Miss Ruby Callin'! Hear her? Reckin what she want?" Then Mrs. Tartt, "Sim, Mandy, you heard me. Where are you?" They came forth, bare-footed and thinly clad; for they really had been fish-hunting. The high water, receding, had left live fish far up on the bank. These the Negroes were spearing and catching with bare hands. Page 241, Section 17 of the Fieldnotes
"My Pore Mother Keeps A-Prayin' For Me"

"There's ole Enoch", Doc Reed said as he sat on Mrs. Tartt's back "gallery" ready to sing. We listened to the "hollerin"' as everybody calls it, though that is too harsh a word for such a rounded-tones. He was crossing the bridge over the Sacarnatchie that runs at the foot of Baldwin Hill. He is artist enough to know that from just there his calls will sound most effective. It is a sort of "hallo-ing", perhaps a form of yodeling, though the words are those of field songs, with always a weird lonesomeness. We could never quite get the effect into our microphone. Usually he would call "oh-oh-oo-oo, I won't be here long", with variations on that theme. Enoch is a strange person, the kind of person that we are tempted to call "a strange creature", for he seems "other-worldly", a wraith that appears suddenly out of darkness. . . . Page 254, Section 17 of the Fieldnotes

Enoch Brown . . . Livingston, Alabama. "Oh I Ain't Goin' Stay Here"

2) Frontier Culture in the Southwest

Frank Goodwyn, Kingsville, Texas.

The Lomaxes spent more than half of their trip in Texas, recording approximately 350 songs, many of which, along with photographs and correlative fieldnotes, reflect frontier culture in the Southwest from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. "Corrido del Soldado" (Ballad of the Soldier) documents the racism that marked the western, as it did the eastern, southern states."Corrido de las elecciones de Brownsville" and other songs found by searching for bandit, bandolero, Jesse James, and outlaw tell true stories lionizing western outlaws, while authentic cowboy songs such as "Old Chisholm Trail" give students a sense of the cowboy lifestyle. Have students consider the following questions:

• What motivates the cowboys in these songs to be cowboys? Do they enjoy their work?
• What tones and sentiments characterize these songs: happiness, sadness, regret, anger, fear, humor, resignation, determination, strength, sentimentality?
• Why do you think cowboys made up and sang these songs? What do they suggest about the people who created and sang them?
• How do cowboy songs differ from the work songs of other physical laborers? What do these differences suggest about the differences between the work and lifestyle of cowboys and other physical laborers?
• How does the representation of cowboys in these songs compare to those in movies, novels, and popular culture?

For a unique look into the Southwest of the late 1930s, students can browse the Fieldnotes and Photographs the Lomaxes made in Texas. In addition to the lawlessness and cowboy lifestyle of the Southwest, students will get a sense of its multiculturalism and community.

3) The Mexican Experience of the Southwest

As with African Americans in the South, Southern Mosaic documents the trials and culture of Mexicans in the Southwest. Songs in Spanish tell stories about Mexicans, such as the migrant cotton pickers of "Yo cuando era niņo - mi padre querido", or the immigrants, known as "wet-backs," of "Versos del mojado." Mexican ballads, lullabies, love songs, and religious drama as well as canciones, corridos, habaneras, and huapangos found in the Audio Subject Index reflect the religion, family, work, music, and leisure of Mexicans in the Southwest. Do a keyword search and full-text search on Kingsville, and Mexican and browse section 6 of the Fieldnotes for pertinent images and text as well as songs.

Lolo Mendoza and Chico Real, with guitars. . . .

Mexican girls, San Antonio, Texas. "Lairon, Lairon, Lairito" "La Rancherita"

"I was youngest of nine children in the family and my father's favorite. When he would come home on his big handsome horse from one of his five ranches, he would begin to sing this song way down the road as a signal to me to meet him. Then we would dance together to the snappy music. My mother thought it was silly." Page 65, Section 6 of the Fieldnotes

4) Toward a Mass Culture, 1890-1930

Advances in technology and the incorporation of business around the turn of the nineteenth century gave rise to an increasingly homogenized mass culture. The Lomaxes were especially sensitive to the impact of this mass culture on distinctive regional folk traditions in Texas and in the South. Observations such as the following speak to the power and speed with which mass culture was disseminated, changing American culture. They can be found by doing a full-text search on radio, popular, and jazz.

We are finding some new stuff and re-recording some of the last of the old. The gang work songs, sung in wild abandon, seem definitely gone. I can't find 'em anymore after only 2 years. And the old spirituals are following: Chief causes, I think, the radio and education. Page 2, Letter from John A. Lomax to Harold Spivacke

Hattie Ellis is a blues singer who is very popular on the radio program sent out from the Texas State Penitentiary . . . in one week Hattie received 3,000 "fan" letters . . . Hattie's singing is fast becoming "throaty" as she strives to imitate the professional "blues" singers. Page 147, Section 12 of the Fieldnotes   "I Ain't Got Nobody"

Have students listen to Hattie Ellis's songs and ask them to describe the difference between them and other blues songs in the collection. Do they find evidence of Lomax's assertion that she is imitating professional singers? Students may want to search for Web sites outside of the Library of Congress to find out more about popular blues music from the thirties.

Mexican girls, San Antonio, Tex..            "Las aguilas de San Miguel" San Antonio. . . . the pupils are all of Mexican families . . . It is interesting that when Mrs. Lomax asked them how to spell certain titles they shook their heads, saying that they could not spell Spanish words. Their written and spoken school work is all done in the English language. Page 61, Section 6 of the Fieldnotes

5) The Depression Years, 1929-1945

The 380 photographs from the thirties comprise a visual record of life in the South in the Depression era. Images found under the subject index headings of farmers and farming evince the primitive agricultural techniques many still used. Images of the Mountain Music Festival in North Carolina afford a view of music, entertainment, and leisure in the 1930s, while others give a general sense of the times.

Enka Square Dance Team dancing at the Mountain Music Festival, Asheville, North Carolina. "Wagoner" "Sally Goodin"

Candy seller, San Antonio, Texas.

Two women hoeing.

There are few textual references to the Great Depression in the collection. But because they come from first-hand accounts, they breathe life into topics that students read about in textbooks, such as tenant farming and sharecropping, the New Deal, and the crash of 1929. To locate such references, do a full-text search on bank, relief, and Roosevelt. In addition, the fieldnotes, like the collection's photographs, provide a portrait of the South during this era. Students can browse the Fieldnotes and look for clues about the time period in which they were written.

"Yon comes Bre'r Zeke; he ain' much on preachin', but he's 'bout de out-prayin'est Parson dat ever went to town on Satday . . . back in 1932, Bre'r Zeke walked out to de aidge o' de pulpit 'n' rolled his eyes up to de sky, 'n' stretched his arms straight out in frontta him, 'n' start prayin': . . . Now, Oh-o Marster, Thou seeth me in dese days o' 'versity; Oh-o Marster, Thou seeth me gwine upn' down de cotton fiel', tryin', Oh-o Marster, tryin' by de sweater my brow ter feed six chilluns wid some fo' cent cotton. Thou seeth me on a Sunday mornin', gwine down de Big Road, wid my elbows out, an' de botooms o' my foots reachin' de groun' thu de soles o' my shoes; Thou hath heared de Boss-man say dat de cotton us done riz won' 'pensate him fer de meat us done et. Now, Oh-o Marster, even as Thou knoweth all things dat be's possible, Thou knoweth also dat feedin' six chilluns wid some fo' cent cotton ain't one uv 'em...' Folks, you know dat prayer hit got answered, yessir, hit sho' be's answered, fer 'twarnt long 'fo' de Good Lord tuck an' drapped dis here Mister Roosevelt right down in Bre'r Zeke's arms, an' said: "Gi' dat nigger ten cents fer his cotton!"

6) The Role of Government in Promoting Art, 1929-1945

The Library of Congress's role in the collection and preservation of folk songs in the 1930s is just one example of the government's increased promotion of the arts during the Depression Era. See an excerpt from the Annual Report of the Archive of American Folk Song to learn more about the Library's role and its cooperation with other government agencies, including the Writers' Project, the Folk Arts Committee, the Music Project, and Recreation Project of the WPA. The biography of John Lomax also speaks to the importance of the WPA in making this collection possible through contacts such as Ruby Pickens Tartt and Genevieve Chandler.

Mrs. Ruby Pickens Tartt at her home, Livingston, Ala..