A stunning tribute to the great Alan Lomax – the legendary musicologist, historian, and recording engineer who captured so many wonderful American sounds in the 20th Century! Lomax's work has been crucial to both the Library Of Congress and Smithsonian/Folkways Records – yet there's also a fair bit that has never seen the light of day before – amazing recordings that make up a surprisingly large part of this box set – which compiles work in many different styles recorded by Alan in the field – blues, folk, gospel, and global modes, plus compelling regional genres – all presented here in a special 6LP set. The box features 55 never-issued tracks, and lots more great ones too – with music by Shirley Collins, Fiddlin Joe Martin, Compagna Sacco, Calvin Frazier, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jelly Roll Morton, Ernest Williams, Neal Morris, Skip James, Son House, Elmer Barton, Brendan Behan, George Sea Island Singers, Big Bill Broonzy, Elizabeth Austin, Jean Ritchie, Bascomb Lamar Lunsford, Bessie Jones, Duke Of Iron, Charles Barnett, and many others. The box features a nice booklet of notes, too – and some rare photos from the archive! LP, Vinyl record album

A really great collection that brings together some of the most hard-rocking tracks from Wanda Jackson's early years on Capitol Records – a time when the singer became an instant legend for her hard-edged way of putting over a tune! At a time when the early rock scene was dominated by male singers, Jackson cut a very striking figure as one of the few who could weave together elements of hillbilly and R&B like the best young singers at Sun Records – captured here with a rawness that's very different than most of the mainstream productions that Capitol were putting down for the pop market! The guitar is great – as raw and ragged as the vocals – and titles include "Baby Loves Him", "Mean Mean Man", "You Don't Know Baby", "Let's Have A Party", "Funnel Of Love", "Savin My Love", "Honey Bop", "Tongue Tied", "Cool Love", "Hot Dog That Made Him Mad", and the classic "Fujiyama Mama". LP, Vinyl record album

Pretty amazing music from new immigrants to the US – a range of different sounds from Eastern European cultures, reworked here for recordings on American 78s! The music has echoes of Jewish styles, and bits of early polka – although polka itself as a genre wouldn't emerge until years later, as these various cultures tried to find a common ground in the mainstream. Most of the recordings are relatively rootsy – and feel more like ethnographic sounds captured in the old world – and the LP comes with a really great booklet of notes, with way more detail than usual for Mississippi! 16 tracks in all – with work by Edward Mika, Wladyslaw Polak, Stanislaw Mermel, Orkiestra Majkuta, and others. (Global Grooves, Folk/Country) LP, Vinyl record album