Nimrod Workman: Oh Death (1983)
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Coal miner, union activist, and singer Nimrod Workman performs "Oh Death." Shot by Alan Lomax and crew at Nimrod and Molly Workman's home in Mascot, Tennessee, July 26, 1983. For more videos from the American Patchwork fieldwork and information about Alan Lomax and his collections, visit: https://archive.culturalequity.org. [03.26.22]
A daily song project launched during the pandemic crisis of Spring 2020 and drawing material from across the Lomax collections, ’33-83. Songs address themes of hardship, loneliness, endurance, and transcendence. Some selections are secular, some sacred; some serious, some comic. Topics are occupational, political, romantic, existential, metaphysical, or combinations thereof. See archive.culturalequity.org/trouble-wont-last for more.
New Orleans (1982): Mardi Gras Indians; the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club; a funeral parade with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band; veterans of the Storyville hot jazz scene; and scenes from Jazz Fest and Preservation Hall.
In 1991 Alan Lomax visited Carriacou, Grenada, for the first time in nearly 30 years to attend the Stone Feast of Sugar Adams. Adams, one of the island's most revered musicians, had died ten years earlier and tradition demanded a round of sacrifices, feastiing, and ritual music-making for the raising of his headstone. Lomax brought along a camcorder and copies of his 1962 Carriacou recordings to share with participants, including local musicologist Winston Fleary and Canute Caliste, a fiddler in the local quadrille tradition, who had also recorded for Alan in '62. While in Carriacou, Alan shot an interview with Mr. Caliste, and nearly two hours of the Shakespeare Mas' — the remarkable Carnival tradition in which men in outlandish Pierrot outfits engage in "combats" — reciting from Julius Caesar and thrashing one another with switches when a speech is deemed poor or incorrect. These video recordings constitute Alan Lomax's last field trip.
Cajun & Creole Louisiana (1982-1985): Cajun cowboys, string bands, zydeco groups, fiddlers, and scenes from the Cajun and Creole Mardi Gras celebrations. Performers include Dennis McGee, Dewey Balfa, Canray Fontenot, Bois Sec Ardoin, Michael Doucet & BeauSoleil, Boozoo Chavis.