Introduction

In early 1958, the Kingston Trio recorded “Tom Dooley,” which appeared on their eponymous album in mid-summer and became a national hit by year’s end. Following on the heels of the recent calypso craze, folk music had surprisingly become popular (and big business). In July, Alan Lomax permanently resettled in New York City, having spent a most productive sojourn in England and Europe. “Alan Lomax, considered by many America’s foremost folklorist, has returned to the United States after nine years in England,” Pete Seeger happily announced in Sing Out! in late 1958. “He left the U.S.A. as an ‘enfant terrible’ and he returns a legend. . . . I welcome back Alan Lomax, not just because he is an old friend, but also because, in my opinion, he is more responsible than any other single individual for the whole revival of interest in American folk music.” After briefly recounting Lomax’s manifold accomplishments over three decades, Seeger concluded: “Well, of course, the folksong revival did grow, and flourishes now like any happy weed, quite out of control of any person or party, right or left, purist or hybridist, romanticist or scientist. Alan Lomax probably looks about him a little aghast.” In the next issue Israel “Izzy” Young also proffered his welcome: “Alan Lomax is busily creating work for American folklorists after spending eight years of collecting in Europe.” In April 1958, Newsweek had already recognized Lomax’s European accomplishments and soon reappearance “after seven years of tireless folk-song collecting across Europe. . . . In possibly a thousand villages he had become a familiar figure, swinging along lopsided with the weight of his tape recorder, laughing, scowling, cajoling, and bullying local singers to record in bars, on threshing floors, and even in sulphur mines.” ¹