Blowing Down that Road

Alan Lomax used Folk music as a way of distributing war information through many channels like the phonograph record , the radio program , church folk, and the folk theatre. Alan would then go to towns and collect major folk songs and war content. Alan Lomax succeeded in getting on the air on more than hundred radio shows where he would promote artist like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seger and others artist in the Lomax circle. Folklore music is representative of the past, nostalgic, it was dying. Lomax was convinced that Woody Guthrie was one of the greatest writers of his time. Lomax even considered dropping everything in order to help Woody succeed.

For Woody Guthrie I decided to create a piece for the song " Blowing Down The Road". Woody Guthrie's songs symbolized the working class. Blowing down the Road is a song that embodies the hardships of the american life in the 20th century. I feel a connection with this song mostly because I'm a person who has to work while in school. At times I feel like I'm blowing down that Dusty Road. I'm working hard for a better life and I'm searching for that place where the dust doesn't blow. At the end of my journey I'll be able to find the place where the water taste like wine.

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight

In class we went over Children's Ballads and there respective origin. James Child is the man responsible for gathering and creating many Children's Ballads. After doing research on the Children's Ballads I found that many of the ballad's origins are of Germanic Folklore. Many of the ballads implicate the presence of the supernatural. In the Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight I found that the according to germanic folklore the Elf Knight is called a "Nix' A Nix is a shapeshifting water spirit which would lure women to their doom. Its not implied in many of the versions of the ballad but the Elf Knight has lured many princesses to their doom. However in many versions instead of the knight succeeding in killing his next victim, Lady Isabel uses the Knights obsession with beauty against him. In that moment she slays the elf knight. I found that many of the live song versions of Children's Ballad are very cheery, when in fact I expected them sound more eerie. Mainly because the ballads I read had to do with death.  Above is a master copy I did of an illustration of the Lady Isabel and the Elf sadly I couldn't find the name of the artist.

Mississippi John Hurt plays a huge role in american folk music. I believe that as american folk artist he underrated. Unfortunately I hadn't heard of John Hurt until  we covered a bit of his history in class.  John Hurt recordings spanned across a myriad of genres which included blues, blue grass, spirituals and rock n roll. I created this painting with the intent of metaphorically displaying how I feel about John Hurt's experience in the American folk music realm. The visual noise I tried to create in the painting is a representation of his presence in the american folk music realm. He is important part of american folk music and he is included in Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk music. However I was disappointed in myself that as African American I hadn't heard of John Hurt until most recently.