Lomaxes in Austin: Oakwood Spring Concert

The free concert and talk will feature American folk music and stories by the grandchildren of the legendary American ethnomusicologist John Avery Lomax Sr. – John Lomax III, son of John Lomax Jr. the highly noted folklorist and performer, and Anna Lomax Wood, daughter of the legendary musicologist, folklorist and producer Alan Lomax.

John’s and Anna’s grandfather John Avery Lomax Sr. is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery, and Anna’s father and John’s uncle Alan Lomax has a cenotaph at the Oakwood Cemetery, signifying the Lomax family’s deep ties to Austin and Texas.

Grandson of pioneering folklorist John Avery Lomax, University of Texas at Austin graduate John Lomax III grew up surrounded by music. His father, John Avery Lomax Jr., co-founded the Houston Folklore Society in the Lomax den when John was 7. Uncle Alan Lomax and Aunt Bess Lomax Hawes often brought their own special magic to family singalongs. John Lomax III had an extensive music industry career in the Nashville as a writer and managing Texas music legends Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle among others. At the age of 78, John began performing professionally featuring the Lomax family’s 150-year musical history.  

Grammy-award winning granddaughter of legendary musicologist John Avery Lomax, Anna Lomax Wood is an ethnomusicologist, oral historian and public folklorist. She produced festivals, concerts, tours, records and documentaries featuring immigrants from Italy, Spain and Greece; preserved and disseminated her father Alan’s archives; and repatriated 80-plus collections within the U.S. and abroad. She directed the Association for Culture Equity (ACE), founded by Alan Lomax and housed at New York City’s Hunter College (CUNY), overseeing the digitization of her father's massive archive and depositing the originals at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Anna Lomax and Jeffrey Greenberg executive-produced the "Alan Lomax Collection" on Rounder Records comprised of hundreds of CDs of music from the Lomax archives, culminating in two Grammy Awards for  “Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings" and nominations for "Alan Lomax in Haiti" on Harte Recordings. She is producer-director of the Global Jukebox, an interactive exploratorium of 6,000 plus songs from 1,200 world cultures, prototyped by Alan Lomax in the 1980s. 
 
The Lomax Family’s Ties to Austin and Texas
John Avery Lomax was raised in Bosque County, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1897. John Lomax taught at Texas A&M University and was a co-founder of the Texas Folklore Society and recorded 80 hours of music and interviews in Texas, as yet completely unknown. This year, the Association for Cultural Equity will partner with Texans and Texas institutions to digitize and restore this massive, varied treasury of Texas history. John Lomax Jr. was born in Austin and graduated from West High School in 1924. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1928. A singer in his own right, John performed at the first two Kerrville Folk Festivals and was a founder of the Houston Folklore & Music Society. Alan Lomax was born in Austin and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1936. Alan's work with his father and on his own is foundational to American and World music. Bess Lomax Hawes was born in Austin and excelled at classical piano and folk guitar at an early age.

The Lomax Family’s Monumental American Music Legacy
Decades before the 1950s folk music revival and the "birth of rock ‘n’ roll", historian, folklorist and preservationist John A. Lomax initiated a decades-long project with the Library of Congress to investigate, record and preserve the original songs and stories of ordinary working people of all backgrounds, which he believed truly represented America. The Library provided him with a 390 pound recording machine built into the trunk of his Model A Ford automobile and an honorarium of $100 per year. While the Jazz-Age was booming in dancehalls, John and his sons Alan Lomax and John Jr. took to the road to document the music of the American people. The three Lomaxes recorded celebrated musical traditions that would have been lost had it not been for their expansive efforts.

Alan Lomax is the legendary ethnomusicologist, musician, folklorist, music collector, archivist, writer, scholar, broadcaster, political activist, concert promoter (Folksong ‘59), oral historian, and filmmaker. Alan served as Assistant in Charge of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Alan independently collected the folk songs of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the Caribbean. Alan Lomax founded The Association for Culture Equity and consulted with Carl Sagan in selecting music for the Voyager Golden Record sent into space in 1977. The Library of Congress acquired Alan’s independent work in 2004.

Bess Lomax Hawes, John Lomax, Jr. and Alan Lomax's sister, was an accomplished folk musician and educator in her own right. A legendary guitar teacher, she taught folklore at the University of California Northridge. In 1976 she directed the Smithsonian’s 1976 Bicentennial Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall, and went on to direct the new Folk and Traditional Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts. She worked with Congresspeople on both sides of the isles believing that folk songs and folklife belongs to all people. She created folk arts programs in every state, and founded the National Heritage Fellowships, which recognizes traditional artists and performers.

The results of the Lomax family's monumental work can still be heard today in almost every form of popular music around the world.

About Save Austin's Cemeteries
Save Austin's Cemeteries is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the city-owned historic cemeteries in Austin through documentation, preservation, and education and promoting them as local and state cultural resources.