Between 1933 and 1946, John A. Lomax made some 80 hours of recordings in the state of Texas, his home state. (John was born in Mississippi in 1867, but his family moved to rural Bosque County, Texas, near Waco, just after his second birthday.) It’s a massive amount of material, reflecting an extraordinary diversity of vernacular traditions, and featuring the first and last recordings that John made. We’ve labored for quite a few years to secure the funding to digitize, catalog, and make available the collection in its entirety, but have to date come up short. In 2020 our colleagues at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center kindly provided us with the transfers they’d done some years earlier of the ten hours of Texas recordings that John and his second wife Ruby Terrill Lomax (“Miss Terrill,” as he always called her) made in the spring of 1939—our idea being that this discrete collection could function as a representative sample of all the Lomax Texas material while we continue our efforts to digitally preserve and make the entirety available. With the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, we digitally cataloged all of the ‘39 recordings and prepared the catalog for inclusion in the Lomax Digital Archive, where they are now available for your exploration and enjoyment (here).

1. Charles Eckhardt, Otis Evans, and Clinton Saathoff: The Fox and the Hounds (Pipe Creek, Bandera County, May 4, 1939)

2. Gonzalo and Cleofe Lopez: La vida de los arrieros (The life of the muleteers) (The home of Gonzalo Lopez, Sugarland, Fort Bend County, April 23, 1939)

3. Lake Porter: Black Jack Grove (The home of Lake Porter, Falfurrias, Brooks County, April 29, 1939)

4. Elmo Newcomer: Glory to the Meetinghouse (Mabel) (The home of Elmo Newcomer, Pipe Creek, Bandera County, May 3, 1939)

5. Shirley Duggan Lomax: Crows in the Garden (Calloway Ranch, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Calloway, Comanche, Comanche County, May 7, 1939)

6. Sylvester Jones (Texas Stavin’ Chain) and Wallace Chains: My Mother Keeps On Praying for Me (Camp #4, Ramsey State Farm, Otey, Brazoria County, April 23, 1939)

7. Smith Casey: Shorty George (Dormitory, Clemens State Farm, Brazoria, Brazoria County, April 16, 1939)

8. Hattie Ellis w/ Cowboy Jack Ramsey: Desert Blues (Goree State Farm For Women, Huntsville, Walker County, May 14, 1939)

9. Francisco Leal & Agapito Salinas: La Potranquita (The Little Filly) (At the home of Rev. William A. Moye and his wife Carmen Taffinder Moye, Kingsville, May 2, 1939)

10. E.A. Briggs: Sam Sherman’s Barroom (The home of Beal D. Taylor, Medina, Bandera County, May 5, 1939)

11. Frank Goodwyn: Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (Falfurrias, Brooks County, April 29, 1939)

12. Manuela Longoria: Love Song (El Sentimiento) (The home of Manuela Longoria, Brownsville, Cameron County, April 24, 1939)

Bed music:

Ace Johnson and L.W. Gooden: Mama Don’t Allow (Dormitory, Clemens State Farm, Brazoria, Brazoria County)

Clinton Saathoff and J. Otis Evans: Eeph Caught A Rabbit, (Pipe Creek, Bandera County) 2635B2

Smith Casey: Grey Horse Blues (Dormitory, Clemens State Farm, Brazoria, Brazoria County) 2597B2