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John Lomax III (born August 20, 1944) is an American journalist, music distributor and manager who has worked with many country music and folk music musicians, such as Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, David Schnaufer, The Cactus Brothers, Kasey Chambers and many others. In 2010, Lomax was recognized for his work sharing country music with the Jo Walker-Meador International Award by the Country Music Association.
John Lomax III was born on August 20, 1944, in Geneva, New York. Shortly after he was born, the Lomax family moved to Houston, TX, where he spent his childhood. Lomax attended West University Elementary, Pershing Junior High, and Lamar High School. [1] After Lomax graduated from high school in 1962, he headed to University of Texas at Austin to study history. He graduated with a B.A. in 1967 and a MS in Library Science in 1970. [2]
He grew up in a family of folklorists and music researchers, so Lomax spent a lot of time listening to music and exploring the Houston music scene when he was younger.[ citation needed ] He knew Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and many others through his father, John A. Lomax, Jr. Alan Lomax, John's uncle, was a documentarian of folk music whose recording work exists in the Library of Congress. Alan received the National Medal of Arts in 1986 and a National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2003.[ citation needed ]
After a brief stint in New York and a return to Houston, Lomax moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1973. By the time he moved to Nashville, he already knew most of the Texan singer-songwriters living there who hung around Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt; he also met artists like Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, and Richard Dobson. [3] He originally went to Nashville for a recording session with Rocky Hill. Later, he worked as a publicist with Jack Clement's Information Services Incorporated, a division of Jack Music Incorporated. [4]
Lomax saw Townes Van Zandt play for the first time in Austin, TX when he was attending college. [5] In the mid-70s, he worked with Guy Clark to encourage Van Zandt to move from Colorado to Nashville. Lomax became Van Zandt's manager when he finally arrived, though he had no prior management experience. Lomax placed an ad in Rolling Stone to encourage readers to sign up for the Townes Van Zandt fan club, through which he was able to amass a large following of people interested in “America's greatest songwriter.” The letters he received in response to the ad were “eloquently written,” with some saying his songs had saved their lives. Lomax managed Van Zandt from 1976-1978, during which time Tomato Records re-released five of Van Zandt's old albums from the Poppy label, released the long-awaited Live at the Old Quarter , and produced the Flyin’ Shoes album. During this time, Lomax and his brother Joe compiled For the Sake of the Song, a book of lyrics, sheet music, photos, and essays on Van Zandt. [4] While managing Van Zandt, Lomax found the beginnings of deeply tangled copyrighting and financial issues that would beleaguer Van Zandt for the rest of his life. Lomax was replaced as manager by Lamar Fike before he could further investigate on Van Zandt's behalf. [4]
When the Heartworn Highways director James Szalapski came to Nashville, Lomax recommended he focus the documentary on lesser known artists on the rise, including Clark, Van Zandt, Charlie Daniels, David Allan Coe, and Steve Young. [3] [4] Lomax worked as talent coordinator for the documentary when filming began. [2]
In 1974, Lomax met Steve Earle. He kept up with Earle for years and eventually worked as his manager from 1983 to 1986. [2] [5] Lomax was able to get Rick Blackburn's interest, but Earle's early singles for Blackburn's Epic label gained little traction. Lomax and Earle later headed to MCA, where Earle released the Guitar Town album (1986). [5] The album reached the top of the Billboard country album chart and its titular track peaked at number 7 on the country singles chart. [6] Guitar Town also brought Earle his first Grammy nominations for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. [7] Guitar Town was certified as a "Gold" album by the R.I.A.A. in 1999.
Lomax continued to manage acts after separating from Earle. These groups include David Schnaufer (1986-1994), The Cactus Brothers (1991-1996), Kimber Clayton (1996-2000), Kasey Chambers (1996-2001), and began working with Texas singer-songwriter Bianca De Leon in 2020.
In 2011, Lomax released Texas Guitar Legend, an album of Rocky Hill's unreleased 1977 recordings. Issued on his SFL label, Lomax licensed the album to England's Floating World Records in a project helmed by Pete Macklin.
SFL was begun in 1988 and released two CDs by "America's Dulcimer Champion", David Schnaufer and two multi-track singles by Kimber Clayton, "Jose Cuervo" and "Addicted to Love", both in the late '90s.
In 2017, Lomax III re-discovered tapes of his father singing old folk songs that had since faded out of public memory. He released a collection of sixteen of the solo, a cappella recordings on SFL as a CD titled FOLK. [8] [9]
Lomax works to distribute country and other music overseas through Roots Music Exporters in Nashville, a business he has been running since 1996. [2] In 2010, Lomax was awarded the Jo Walker-Meador International Award by the Country Music Association which “recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual in advocating and supporting country music's marketing development in territories outside the United States.” [10] [11]
He opened Lomax Global Music, an Amazon Marketplace enterprise with the assistance of Ryan Schemmel, in 2011, selling mainly single copies of hard-to-find CDs, DVDs and lps mainly to U.S. customers.
Lomax started a long career of music writing while he was attending college in Austin. While in Houston, he wrote for Space City! , an underground newspaper. In Nashville, he met Harvey Magee, who had started Hank, the only music magazine in the city at the time. [1] In the early 1970s, Lomax also wrote for the River City Review and Zoo World , monthly music magazines operating out of Memphis and Fort Lauderdale, respectively.
In 1980, Lomax, Thom King, and Richard Harbert started the Nashville Gazette, with Kathy Mattea as the magazine's receptionist. Lomax bankrolled the magazine, wrote as a music editor, and worked as the behind-the-scenes editor in chief. The Gazette ran early features on Rodney Crowell, Lacy Dalton, Gail Davies, and others. Lomax started his “Song City Serenades” column during the Nashville Gazette period; after the magazine folded a few months later, Lomax began a similar news column for The Aquarian Weekly.
Lomax has also authored several books. He and his brother, Joe, created For the Sake of the Song, the Townes van Zandt Songbook in 1978. In 1986, his Nashville: Music City USA was published, providing an introduction to the city's musical history and current scene. The book contains over 200 photographs as well as “The Ultimate Country Music Chart,” with an extensive summary of achievements for over 100 country stars. [12] Lomax co-authored The Country Music Book in 1988. [2] In 2001, he wrote Red Desert Sky: The amazing adventures of the Chambers family, which recounted the career of Kasey Chambers and family. [13] [2]
Lomax wrote columns for country music magazines in Australia (C (Country Update) and England (Country Music International, Country Music People) through 2017, marking 37 years of consistent chronicling of country and nashville music events and artists. In 2017 we wrote a lengthy retrospective article, The John Lomax Legacy for Texas Music magazine, chronicling the music highlights of himself, his grandfather John A. Lomax, father, John A. Lomax Jr. and son John Nova. The 6,500 word feature was illustrated with many rare photographs and is the only source of information presenting the work of all four John Lomax's, spanning the 1880s to 2017.
That same year Lomax began a systematic program of donating his own work and additional archival material for the Fondren Library's Woodson Research Center at Rice University and the Country Music Foundation Library and Media Center.
In 2019, nearly 20 of his personal photographs and archival pictures were used in the Ken Burns Country Music documentary TV show, dvd and book.
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(May 2023) |
John Lomax III is the son of John Lomax Jr. and Margaret Marable Lomax and grandson of John Lomax; both John Lomax Jr. and Sr. were pioneering folklorists famous for documenting, recording, and performing folk music traditions in the first half of the 20th century. Lomax III's uncle, Alan Lomax, and aunt, Bess Lomax Hawes, also had careers in music and folk traditions and have been honored with the National Medal of Arts.
Lomax III is the father of John Nova and Amanda Margaret. John Nova Lomax was a Texas based freelance writer and editor who died in 2023 at the age of 53. [14] Texas Monthly ; Amanda Lomax is a photographer and artist now living in Nashville.
Stephen Fain Earle is an American country, rock and folk singer-songwriter. He began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982.
John Townes Van Zandt was an American singer-songwriter. He wrote numerous songs, such as "Pancho and Lefty", "For the Sake of the Song", "If I Needed You", "Snake Mountain Blues", "Our Mother the Mountain", "Waitin’ Round to Die", and "To Live Is to Fly". His musical style has often been described as melancholic and features rich, poetic lyrics. During his early years, Van Zandt was respected for his guitar playing and fingerpicking ability.
Guy Charles Clark was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Kathy Mattea, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith and Chris Stapleton. He won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture of You.
Richard James Joseph Dobson II was an American singer-songwriter and author. Dobson was part of the outlaw country movement and spent time in the 1970s with Townes Van Zandt, Mickey White, Rex "Wrecks" Bell, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, and "Skinny" Dennis Sanchez.
David Schnaufer was an American folk musician. He is widely credited with restoring the popularity of the Appalachian dulcimer.
Susanna Talley Clark was an American artist and country/folk songwriter. She was married to Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark and had a close personal friendship with fellow singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt.
Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas is a double live album by Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. The recording captures Van Zandt in a series of July 1973 performances in an intimate venue Old Quarter. There is a strong critical consensus that this recording is among the most exemplary of Van Zandt's career.
For the Sake of the Song is the debut album by country singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt, released in 1968. The majority of the songs, including the title track, "Tecumseh Valley", "(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria", "Waitin' Around to Die", and "Sad Cinderella", were re-recorded in more stripped-down versions for subsequent studio albums.
High, Low and In Between is an album by country singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt, released in 1971. The album was recorded in L.A. and showcases what Van Zandt himself considered to be one of his most well written songs: "To Live Is To Fly".
Together at the Bluebird Café is a live recording of an "in-the-round" concert by three critically acclaimed Texan singer-songwriters, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. Each alternates between solo performances.
Flyin' Shoes is an album released by folk/country singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt in 1978. It was his first album of original material in five years and was produced by Chips Moman.
At My Window is an album released by folk/country singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt in 1987. This was Van Zandt's first studio album in the nine years that followed 1978's Flyin' Shoes, and his only studio album recorded in the 1980s.
David Roland Rodriguez was a folk music singer-songwriter, performer and poet.
"If I Needed You" is a song written by Townes Van Zandt and performed on his 1972 album The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. It was covered 9 years later by American country music artists Emmylou Harris and Don Williams as a duet, and was released in September 1981 as the first single from Harris' album Cimarron. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and #1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. According to Townes's business partner and producer Kevin Eggers, the song was written about his wife Anne Mittendorf Eggers.
Don Sanders was an American singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas. Due to his unique blend of storytelling and songwriting he was sometimes called a "folk humorist." Throughout the years he shared the stage with Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Lightnin' Hopkins, Vince Bell and Janis Joplin. Sanders was an educator, a musician, a one-time founder of an independent record label, a founding member of KPFT radio, and a writer.
Sand Mountain Coffee House was a venue and home to Houston folk musicians from 1965 to 1977. Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Don Sanders were notable installations who wrote, performed, and sometimes lived at the coffee house.
George Ensle is a folk and country singer-songwriter and guitarist from Texas.
John A. Lomax Jr. was an American folklorist, performer, and land developer. He co-founded the Houston Folklore & Music Society and contributed to the preservation and publication of folklore and folk music during the 20th century, continuing the work of his father and brother. Lomax once defined folk music as "a story in song written no one knows when, no one knows where, no one knows by whom or even why."
The Houston Folklore & Music Society is a group dedicated to keeping alive traditional folk music and lore.
Linda Lowe is a poet, singer-songwriter producer, recording artist and the founder of Writers in the Round Concert Series, a community sponsored, non-profit performing arts organization dedicated to connecting and mentoring creative writers and musicians. She has recorded seven albums of original music on her Rollin’ Records label including a duet album with Steve Gillette entitled "So Far Apart" produced by her husband, Karl Caillouet. Her songs "Let Her Go Gently" “Amber Eyes" and "Someday I’ll Be a Bluebird" are used in hospices and funerals across the country. She is currently working at The Red Shack studio with Rock Romano in Houston, Texas mixing two new albums of original music entitled "Barbwire Heart" and "Lucid Dreamer". She is the author of the "Little by Little" production, a musical presented at Main Street Theater in 1996 and again in 2017 with Xavier Educational Academy students in the Rice University Village. She and her daughter, Michelle Caillouet began the Music and Drama department for Xavier Educational Academy in West University Place, Texas where they continue to teach. For 10 years Writers in the round presented their concert series at Hamman Hall with Linda hosting and directing each show. Writers in the round will celebrate their 30-year anniversary in the 2019–2020 season at Main Street Theater in Rice University Village where they began in 1990. Linda's archives are currently being collected and preserved for her contribution to Texas Music at Rice University's Woodson Research Center and Texas State University's Texas Music History Department.
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