Ethnomusicologist, Alan Lomax, began field recording of folk music when he was just a teenager alongside his father, John Lomax, a pioneer in the field. When he was 18, on a visit to the Angola Prison, Lomax and his father discovered the music of a prisoner named Huddie William Ledbetter, better know as Lead Belly. The hundreds of Lead Belly’s songs they recorded were just a blip in their eventual collection of tens of thousands of field recordings for the Library of Congress.

Volumes I & II are available to purchase through Rounder Records HERE.

Several tracks have been uploaded as videos that can be found HERE.

This is footage of Ellis Unit inmates singing work songs was captured by Pete and Toshi Seeger on a visit to the Texas prison in Huntsville in 1966 with their son Daniel and folklorist Bruce Jackson.