The 1936 Virginia Prison Recordings

SA-70

In 1936 famed folklorist John A. Lomax visited the Virginia State Prison Farm here and at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond. Working for the Library of Congress's Archive of Folk Song, Lomax canvassed southern prisons in search of traditional African American music. On 13 and 14 June 1936, Lomax, assisted by Harold Spivacke, recorded quartets, banjo tunes, work songs, spirituals, and blues at the State Farm. Among the notable performers were inmates Jimmie Strother and Joe Lee. The Library of Congress first released songs from the sessions in the 1940s and they have appeared on many recordings since. These sessions are among the earliest aural records of Virginia's black folk-song tradition.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Field Recordings Vol. 1: Virginia 1936-1941. DOCD-5575. Notes by Tony Russell. This release includes all of Strother's songs except "Goin' to Richmond"; Deep River of Song: Virginia and the Piedmont, Minstrelsy, Work Songs, and Blues. Rounder Records, 2000. Notes by Kip Lornell. Includes six Strother numbers, including "Goin' to Richmond"; Negro Religious Songs and Services. Rounder Records, 1514, new release 1999; A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings. Selected and Annotated by Stephen Wade. Rounder Records, Rounder Records 1500, 1997; Virginia Traditions: Non-Blues Secular Music. Global Village Music, Blue Ridge Institute Series, CD 1001; Deep River of Song: Black Appalachia, String Bands, Songsters and Hoedowns. Rounder Records 1823, 1999; Gregg D. Kimball, "Historic Field Recordings: Jimmie Strother, Virginia Songster," 64 Magazine, 3, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 2002): 54-59; Bruce Bastin, Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986; Our Singing Country, collected and compiled by John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, with music editor Ruth Crawford Seeger. New York: Macmillan, 1941; Alexandria marriage records and 1930 census, Library of Virginia; Virginia Star (Culpeper) April 1935.