Alan Lomax: Keeper of Traditional music.(ARTS)(APPRECIATION)

Beginning of article

Byline: Derek Simmonsen, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The best thing about Alan Lomax was that he had an ear for good music. The noted musicologist and field recorder was never a household name, though the musicians he discovered (Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Woody Guthrie) have had a welcome place in America's living rooms for some time.

His death July 19, at the age of 87, is a reminder of the legacy he left behind. Mr. Lomax's passion was to find the folk songs that had built the United States, the kind of backwater music that cared little for commercial trends, and bring it to the people.

Million-dollar recording studios were not his milieu. His tools were …