Born one hundred years ago, Alan Lomax began his tuneful sojourn in the 1930s when he accompanied his father on a music documentary trip through the American South. Recording front-porch jam sessions and work songs in state penitentiaries, Lomax went on to bring the musical traditions of the South into the country's consciousness. Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Jelly Roll Morton, and many others – Lomax's discoveries became the canon of 20th-century American folk music. Michael J. Kramer, professor of history at Northwestern University, and Nathan Salsburg, the curator of Lomax's archive, will host a conversational and musical journey that revels in, and reveals, some of the surprising legacies of this legendary ethnographer.

This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival and is generously underwritten as part of their Stanek Endowed Music Program series.