Fields of Lomax

I've never really blogged before but I've been meaning to try a bit. I've been working on an exciting project for Valcour Records on which we're recording songs drawn from the 1934 Lomax recordings that my book addresses. It's been a wonderful way to return to Louisiana after a year away--to be around old friends I've been playing music with for years and to have the chance to work with incredible musicians I haven't had the chance to know as well. It's been humbling and inspiring to see the musicians I grew up with become so masterful and to see the masters deepen their craft even further. There's always the temptation to imagine that things are just in decline, that government collusion and corruption, language loss, ecological disaster, and imbecilic Mississippian radio trolls have us by the throat, but when I hear Megan Brown sing a 600-year-old French song with utter perfection, or Joel Savoy play the fiddle, I hear a story of inclination rather than decline--an inclination toward the beautiful and a gathering of inclining strengths over a series of inspired generations. What I am saying is that the force is strong here and the Death Star best watch its back. 

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