So “insurgent country” has a future huh? That is so disappointing on so many levels.

Sarah Jarosz always gets “jazzy”. That’s why I’m such a big fan of Sierra Hull! (lol)

As long as people aren’t trying to talk on their cell phones during a concert, it doesn’t bother me.

Music City Roots Alert! They’re Baaaaaaaack! Tonight’s show will include one of my personal fave’s Kim Richey, Laura Cantrell, Bill Lloyd, The Willies, and Flea Market Hustlers(?). Sounds like fun to me!
Link: http://musiccityroots.com/

“‘Over-simplify’ was chosen with some care.”

Care to be talking to yourself, it seems.

It’s easy to simplify anyone’s story: George Washington, Napoleon, Einstein, Minnie Pearl. In fact, that’s generally what happens when one tells in 3 pages–or 300 pages–the story of a life that took half a century or more to live!

But surely you have a point, and maybe you can clue us peasants in as to what it is: Does the writer fail to appreciate all the great things John Lomax did? Or does he vastly overstate Lomax’s contributions? Or were there complexities about Lomax that are pertinent and that he missed?

http://www.rustyknucklesmusic.com/collections/music/products/billy-don-burns-nights-when-im-sober-cd

I exaggerate for the fun of it–but not by much. I will have a chapter and more on this issue in my eventual biography of Ralph Peer. And again–I very much respect what John Lomax, and in different ways, his son Alan, did do, what they preserved and, to a certain extent but not more, how they “placed’ and used what they found.

I did a project on it back in college and what John Lomax did was capture irreplaceable recordings that would have been lost to time. And Jon, I agree with you that the article certainly only touches the surface of what the Lomax did for music. But I for one am just happy that someone in the media is talking about it all. It’s a national treasure that’s hard to display/share like a piece of memorabilia in a Smithsonian.