"Hey Lally Lally Lo" from Jayme Stone's Folklife album.

Longmont banjoist Jayme Stone says field recordings made decades ago by folklorist Alan Lomax are like heirloom seeds. Starting in the 1930s, Lomax traveled the world collecting thousands of songs. Stone and his collaborators have cultivated new music from those old tracks. Their latest album is Jayme Stone’s Folklife. It's the second album inspired by the Alan Lomax collection and it covers a broad swath of musical styles.

Jayme Stone spoke with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner.

Folklorist Herbert Halpert was a colleague of Alan Lomax. In the late 1930s Halpert drove his “soundwagon”—a converted army ambulance—south from Washington, DC to collect folk songs for the Federal Writers’ Project. 

 

(Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

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