#alan lomax

Everyone knows "House of the Rising Sun," which is one of the most over-recorded and over-exposed songs in American folk music even if we ignore the Animals' recording of the song, which is so ubiquitous that many people think they wrote it. The Animals got their version from Bob Dylan, who recorded it on his first album after learning the song from Dave Van Ronk, who always said that he learned it from a recording by folklorist Hally Wood, who got it from Alan Lomax, who also taught the song to Lead Belly and Josh White. Lomax was convinced the song came from Black tradition, which is why he taught it to Lead Belly and White, though he recorded three versions of the song in 1937 in eastern Kentucky, all from white singers, and the only earlier recording was one by Tom Ashley in 1933, also a white musician, although he was from Tennessee. Lomax confirmed his suspicions about the song's origins to his own satisfaction by asking older New Orleans jazz players about it, though this confirmation seems to have consisted of a few people saying they thought it sounded familiar. But the song very well could have white origins, since New Orleans was seen as the "sin capital" of the entire south and considering the provenance of the early versions.

Joe Savage: Texas Is My Home (1978)