Page "Delta blues" Paragraph 4

Subsequently, the early Delta blues ( as well as other genres ) were extensively recorded by John Lomax and his son Alan Lomax, who criss-crossed the Southern US recording music played and sung by ordinary people helping establish the canon of genres we know today as American folk music.

Their recordings number in the thousands, and now reside in the Smithsonian Institution.

According to Dixon & Godrich ( 1981 ) and Leadbitter and Slaven ( 1968 ), Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress researchers did not record any Delta bluesmen ( or women ) prior to 1941, when he recorded Son House and Willie Brown near Lake Cormorant, Mississippi, and Muddy Waters at Stovall, Mississippi ; however, this claim is disputed as John and Alan Lomax did record Bukka White in 1939, Lead Belly in 1933 and most likely others.