Some of the earliest field recordings made on the island

    1. Nassau String Band - Wasp Bit Nobi on Her Conch-Eye

    2. Cleveland Simmons Group - Sloop John B (Histe Up the John B's Sails)

    3. Cleveland Simmons Group - War Down the Line

    4. Nassau String Band - Married Woman is a Secret Murder

    5. Henry Lundy - Round the Bay of Mexico

    6. Nassau String Band - Delia Gone

    7. Elizabeth Austin - Sailin' in the Boat

    8. Fox Hill Men - The Devil Roll Like Thunder

    9. Gertrude Thurston- Oh, Baby, Lick it Up

    10. Nassau String Band - Raw Rum, Gin and Toddy

    11. Unknown Artist - All Day, All Night Long

    12. Frederick McQueen - Sand Gone in My Cuckoo-Eye

    13. Cleveland Simmons - I May Be Gone

    14. Men from Andros Island - Dig My Grave

  • The earliest field recordings made on the island of the Bahamas by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, dating back as far as 1935. This collection features chanteys, anthems, ring games, and round dances, as well as one of the earliest known recordings of “Sloop John B”, made famous by The Beach Boys.

  • Recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle

    Reissue produced by Anna Lomax Wood and David Katznelson

    Associate Producer:  Kiki Smith-Archiapatti

    Director: Reed Watson

    Sound Engineering & Restoration:  Christos Deligiannis

    Art Direction:  Aaron Gresham

    Cover Photo: Alan Lomax

Enjoy the beauty of the most
intimate music imaginable

  • 1.  Texas Gladden - The Dapple Cow

    2.  I. Gledhell - Dance to Your Daddy

    3.  Vera Ward Hall - Mama’s Gonna Buy You A Little Lap Dog

    4.  Jean Eustache Stoute, Rose of Sharon Singers - Dodo Petit Popo

    5.  Viola Brown - Pollyanna Low Gal

    6.  Women from Kakheti - Iavnana

    7.  Mary Gillies and Annie Johnston - Bà bà mo leanabh beag

    8.   Nikolai Timofeevich Alekseev - D'ieretii yryata

    9.  Annie Charles and La Rose Society - L’enfant Qui Pas Ni Mama

    10.  Wanda Sanna - Ninna Nanna

    11.  Carmen Taffinder Moye - Señora Santana

    12.  Maria Escrihuela - Nana Nanita

    13.  Raffaela De Franco - Ninna Nanna

    14.  Sidney Hemphill Carter - Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby

  • The Lomax collection reflects a variety of human experience—from the sacred to the profane, from the rural to the urban, and from the public square to the domestic scene. The Lomaxes recorded lullabies all over the world, creating a record of the universality of these particularly intimate moments between parents and children. On this, the fifth release from Lomax Archive, we dive deep into some of our favorite lullabies from the collection, with tracks from Texas Gladden to Vera Hall, from Trinidad to Ireland, and even some surprises.

  • Recorded by Alan Lomax

    Reissue produced by Odysseus Chairetakis & Anna Lomax Wood

    Associate Producer:  Kiki Smith-Archiapatti

    Director: Reed Watson

    Sound Engineering & Restoration:  Christos Deligiannis

    Art Direction:  Aaron Gresham

    Cover Photo: Alan Lomax

Discover the miraculous art of a Caribbean treasure

    1. Surprise Jazz - Instrumental Merengue

    2. Sosyete Djouba - Elèn Kap Kriye, Bèt-La Anraje (Helene Is Crying, The Bug Is Angry)

    3. Anonymous - Nan Semitye Pou M Antere Fanmi Mwen (In The Cemetery, I’ll Bury My Family)

    4. Loumé Fréice - En Avant Simple

    5. Ago’s Bal Band - Mèsi, Papa Vensan (Thank You, Papa Vincent)

    6. Orchestre Granville Desronvil - Déus Blues

    7. La Movinillère - Valse À Elle (A Waltz For Her, Instrumental)

    8. Zora Neale Hurston - Bama, Bama

    9. The Saul Polinice, Louis & Ciceron Marseille Group - Danabala Wèdo Tokan Koulèv (Danbala Wèdo, Sign of the Snake)

    10. Ago’s Bal Band - Kamèn Sa Wa Fè (Carmen, What Have You Done?)

    11. Francillia - Nou Tout Se Moún

    12. Students of L’École Normal, Port-Au-Prince - M-Pral Fè Lago Ti Zongle (Ti Zongle, I’m Going To Play Hide And Seek)

    13. Secondary Students of L’École Daumier, Port-Au-Prince - Ti Zwazo (Little Bird)

    14. Surprise Jazz - Mèsi, Papa Vensan (Thank You Papa Vincent)

  • In 1936, in the middle of scouring rural America for folk music that might have vanished forever if not for his efforts, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax traipsed off to Haiti for four months with his 19-year-old fiancée and a 55-pound recording unit. The results are only now available for anyone to hear. "Haiti (1936-1937) Vol. 1 - Treasures from the Lomax Archive" brings together highlights from the 2011 GRAMMY nominated box set "Alan Lomax in Haiti" and traces how Mr. Lomax was out to document the music of everyday Haitians, in whatever form, and to hunt for the influence of African music, as he had in the U.S. From the most accessible sounds to the dance bands of Port-au-Prince, who had incorporated New Orleans jazz from records imported by occupying U.S. Marines, Lomax followed leads around the country, recording celebratory carnival songs, work songs, and eventually the music of officially forbidden Vodou (what is commonly known as voodoo) ceremonies.

  • Recorded by Alan Lomax in Haiti, 1936-1937.

    Highlights of the GRAMMY-nominated 2009 release Alan Lomax’s Recordings in Haiti: 1936-1937

    Reissue produced by David Katznelson, Anna Lomax Wood and Jeffrey A. Greenberg

    Associate Producer:  Kiki Smith-Archiapatti

    Advisors/Curators: Sara Jane Bell, Lamont Jack Pearly, Jesse Rifkin, Chandra Williams

    Director: Reed Watson

    Sound Engineering & Restoration:  Steve Rosenthal, Christos Deligiannis

    Publishing:  Red Brick Songs, TRO Essex, Warner Chappell. Global Jukebox Music, Folkways Music

    Art Direction:  Aaron Gresham

    Cover Photo: Alan Lomax

    Lomax catalog card courtesy of Library of Congress

Get lost in the sounds that inspired some of the biggest stars of popular music

    1. Muddy Waters - I Be’s Troubled

    2. Vera Hall - Trouble so Hard

    3. Fred McDowell - 61 Highway 

    4. Rosalie Hill - Rolled and Tumbled

    5. Belton Sutherland - Blues #2

    6. John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson, Peter Chapman (Memphis Slim), William Lee Conley (Big Bill) Broonzy - I Could Hear My Name A Ringin’

    7. Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) - CC Rider

    8. Dock Boggs - Country Blues

    9. Hobart Smith - See That My Grave is Kept Clean

    10. Jack Owens & Bud Spires- Cherry Ball Blues

    11. Augusta Crawford - Stop All the Buses

    12. Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson, William Lee Conley (Big Bill) Broonzy - Life is Like That

    13. William Lee Conley (Big Bill) Broonzy - on “the record industry”

  • "Blues Unbound: Classics from the Lomax Archive (1941-1978)" is an unforgettable tour of the haunted landscape that gave birth to the blues, a story told through the work of such legendary figures as Muddy Waters. Fred McDowell and Lead Belly. Recorded between 1941 and 1978. these tracks are the perfect introduction to the wealth of world-changing sound that arose from the American South.

  • Recorded by Alan Lomax, John Wesley Work, Lewis Jones and John A. Lomax on

    August 30, 1941 in Stovall, MS (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    March 2, 1947 in New York, NY (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    August 25, 1959 in Bluefield, VA (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    September 25, 1959 in Como, MS (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    September 30, 1959 in Memphis, TN (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    October 10, 1959 in Livingston, AL (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    July 24, 1966 in Newport, RI (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    September 3, 1978 in Canton, MS (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    Lead Belly appears courtesy of The Ledbetter Trust.

    Reissue produced by David Katznelson, Anna Lomax Wood, Robert Meitus and Chandra Williams

    Associate Producer:  Kiki Smith-Archiapatti

    Advisors/Curators: Sara Jane Bell, Lamont Jack Pearly, Jesse Rifkin, Chandra Williams

    Director: Reed Watson

    Sound Engineering & Restoration:  Steve Rosenthal, Christos Deligiannis

    Publishing:  Red Brick Songs, TRO Essex, Warner Chappell. Global Jukebox Music, Folkways Music

    Art Direction:  Aaron Gresham

    Cover Photo: Shirley Collins

    Postcard from Huddie Ledbetter courtesy of Library of Congress

Experience some of the foundational recordings of gospel music

Treasures from one of the first supergroups of folk music

    1. Bessie Jones - Sometimes

    2. Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, John Davis, Peter Davis, Willis Proctor - Sheep, Sheep, Don'tcha Know the Road

    3. Bessie Jones - O Death

    4. Bessie Jones, Peter Davis, Ed Young, Emma Lee Ramsey, Alberta Ramsey, Nathaniel Rahmings, Ms. Ora - Before This Time Another Year

    5. Hobart Smith, Bessie Jones, Emma Lee Ramsey, John Davis - It Just Suits Me

    6. Bessie Jones, Hobart Smith, John Davis, Ed Young, Emma Lee Ramsey -O Day (Yonder Come Day)

    7. John Davis, Bessie Jones, Ben Ramsey, Willis Proctor, Henry Morrison, Peter Davis, Jerome Davis, Joe Armstrong - Moses Don't Get Lost

    8. Bessie Jones - Little David

    9. Bessie Jones, John Davis, Ben Ramsey, Willis Proctor, Henry Morrison, Peter Davis, John Davis, Jerome Davis, Joe Armstrong - Daniel In The Lion's Den

    10. Bessie Jones - You Better Mind

    11. Bessie Jones - John Henry (Annie Bell)

    12. Bessie Jones - Go to Sleepy Little Baby

    13. Bessie Jones - Regular, Regular, Rollin' Under

  • Bessie Jones was one of the most popular performers on the 1960s and '70s folk circuit, appearing usually at the helm of the Georgia Sea Island Singers at colleges, festivals, the Poor People's March on Washington, and Jimmy Carter's inauguration. "Before This Time Another Year" is a collection of highlights of her classic recordings with the Singers, combined with previously unavailable solo and small-group performances captured by Alan Lomax between 1959 and 1966. Alan Lomax first visited the Georgia Sea Island of St. Simons in June of 1935 with folklorist Mary Elizabeth Barnicle and author Zora Neale Hurston. There they met the remarkable Spiritual Singers Society of Coastal Georgia, as the group was then called, and recorded several hours of their songs and dances for the Library of Congress. Returning 25 years later, Lomax found that the Singers were still active, and had been enriched by the addition of Bessie Jones, a South Georgia native with a massive collection of songs going back to the slavery era. Over the next several years, Lomax and Jones worked together to present, promote, and teach Southern black folk song across the country, from nightclubs to elementary schools.

  • Recorded by Alan Lomax on:

    October 12, 1959 at St. Simons Island, GA (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    April 4, 1960 at St. Simons Island, GA (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    April 11, 1960 at St. Simons Island, GA (Discover this trip on the Lomax Digital Archive)

    Reissue Produced by Anna Lomax Wood, David Katznelson, Odysseus D. Chairetakis, Chandra Williams

    Associate Producer:  Kiki Smith-Archiapatti

    Advisors/Curators: Sara Jane Bell, Lamont Jack Pearly, Jesse Rifkin, Chandra Williams

    Director: Reed Watson

    Sound Engineering & Restoration:  Steve Rosenthal, Christos Deligiannis

    Publishing:  Red Brick Songs, TRO Essex

    Art Direction:  Aaron Gresham

    Cover Photo: Alan Lomax

    Note from Bessie Jones courtesy of Library of Congress

Learn more about us

  • Lomax Archive is a record label founded through a partnership with Alan Lomax’s Association for Cultural Equity and industry veterans David Katznelson and Reed Watson.


    Founders: Anna Lomax Wood, Odysseus D. Chairetakis, David Katznelson, Robert Meitus

  • The label is committed to ethical presentation and collaboration with the descendants of the musicians featured in the archive. Proceeds from the releases will be shared with the Association for Cultural Equity (ACE) and the families of the musicians.

  • The Association for Cultural Equity (ACE) was founded by Alan Lomax to explore and sustain the world's expressive traditions with humanistic commitment and scientific engagement. ACE was registered as a charitable organization in the State of New York in 1983, and is housed at New York City's Hunter College.

    Our mission is to stimulate cultural equity through preservation, research, and dissemination of the world's traditional music and dance, and to reconnect people and communities with their creative heritage. ACE is a living archive that puts its collections and works at the service of communities of origin, endangered cultures, emerging cultural leaders, students and teachers at all levels, and the scientific community. 

    "It still remains for us to learn how we can put our magnificent mass communications technology at the service of each and every branch of the human family." - Alan Lomax

    Learn more about ACE by clicking here.

  • The label launches in 2025 to mark a new chapter in making these historic recordings more widely accessible. With advances in digital platforms and remastering technology, the label can bring these essential recordings to a new generation of listeners while honoring the Lomax family legacy.