If you don't listen to much blues or folk music, then the death of Alan Lomax last week probably passed you by as an overlooked blurb on NPR, if you heard about it at all. But it seems to me hard to overstate his influence on the entirety of popular music. (Short of Kraftwerk, I can't think of a style or group that doesn't trace back to either folk, cowboy or blues in some way.) His books on folk music lyrics are unbelievably comprehensive.

Anyhow, let me suggest that sometime this weekend, you put on a Leadbelly or Howlin' Wolf album, or sing that old cowboy song stuck in your brain from grade school, or even give the "O Brother Where Art Thou" CD a listen. And say so long to Mr. Alan Lomax.