In this episode of Blues Unlimited, we reconstruct one of Alan Lomax's greatest field trips. In a lengthy and quite distinguished career that involved literally thousands of recordings, our opinion is that "it doesn't get much better than this." When Alan Lomax rolled into the community of Como, Mississippi, in September of 1959, he not only brought with him modern stereo recording equipment, but he also -- as he usually did -- sought out a wide variety of performers and musicians to capture on tape. Fife and drum band music, guitar and fiddle duets, children's nursery rhymes, dynamic and powerful gospel singing from a nearby church in Tyro, Mississippi, and Fred McDowell's very first recordings. In this episode of Blues Unlimited, we re-assemble the recordings from this legendary field trip in roughly chronological order, giving us a glimpse of what it might have been like to have been there, discovering this fantastic music right alongside one of the great folklorists and song catchers of the 20th century.

In this episode of Blues Unlimited, we reconstruct one of Alan Lomax's greatest field trips. In a lengthy and quite distinguished career that involved literally thousands of recordings, our opinion is that "it doesn't get much better than this." When Alan Lomax rolled into the community of Como, Mississippi, in September of 1959, he not only brought with him modern stereo recording equipment, but he also -- as he usually did -- sought out a wide variety of performers and musicians to capture on tape. Fife and drum band music, guitar and fiddle duets, children's nursery rhymes, dynamic and powerful gospel singing from a nearby church in Tyro, Mississippi, and Fred McDowell's very first recordings. In this episode of Blues Unlimited, we re-assemble the recordings from this legendary field trip in roughly chronological order, giving us a glimpse of what it might have been like to have been there, discovering this fantastic music right alongside one of the great folklorists and song catchers of the 20th century.