Muddy Waters is recorded at Stovall Farm
On a field trip run jointly by the Library of Congress and Fisk University, Alan Lomax and the Fisk musicologist John W. Work III record McKinley Morganfield — Muddy Waters — at Stovall Farm near Clarksdale, Mississippi, returning in 1942 for further sessions. The recordings capture an unamplified Delta player shortly before the Great Migration took him to Chicago, where the same repertoire was rebuilt with electricity. Work's share of the trip has been the subject of a long argument about credit.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Alan Lomax · person · United States · not located
- Blues · cultural practice · United States · not located
- The Mississippi Delta · region · United States · not located
- Field recording · process · not located
- The Great Migration · phenomenon · United States · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The 1941–42 Library of Congress recordings of Muddy Waters at Stovall
Alan Lomax, working for the Library of Congress with John W. Work III of Fisk University, recorded McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters) at Stovall Farm near Clarksdale in the summer of 1941 and returned in 1942. V55 verification basis: retrieved in search summary from discographic and public-history accounts; no archival session sheet was consulted, exact session dates differ between retrieved sources, and the long-running dispute over John W. Work III's credit is noted rather than resolved.
Public-history and discographic accounts of the Fisk University / Library of Congress Mississippi trips · Partly verified
Accounts of The Complete Plantation Recordings (Chess, 1993), documenting the 1941 and 1942 Library of Congress field sessions at Stovall, Mississippi
Recorded on Alan Lomax
- W. C. Handy hears a guitarist at Tutwiler station
- The Great Migration
- Mamie Smith records "Crazy Blues"
- The Lomaxes record Lead Belly at Angola
- Alan Lomax records Jelly Roll Morton at the Library of Congress
- Muddy Waters is recorded at Stovall Farm
- The American Folklife Center acquires the Alan Lomax Collection
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The American Folklife Center acquires the Alan Lomax Collection · 2004
- Alan Lomax records Jelly Roll Morton at the Library of Congress · 1938
- The Lomaxes record Lead Belly at Angola · 1933-07
- Mamie Smith records "Crazy Blues" · 1920-08-10
- The Great Migration · 1916–1970
- W. C. Handy hears a guitarist at Tutwiler station · c. 1903