“Lil Liza Jane”

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Description

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress challenged musical artists to interpret material from its unparalleled archive of ethnographic recordings of traditional folk music. Artists were asked to put their own spin on these archival treasures, and to perform them at a special showcase during the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City, Missouri in 2023. The showcase was recorded for this webcast.

This video features married Indie-folk/Americana songwriting duo Couldn’t Be Happiers, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, singing “Lil Liza Jane.” From a field recording of singer and guitarist Sam Chatmon, recorded by Alan Lomax at Chatmon’s home in Hollandale, Mississippi in August, 1978. From the Alan Lomax collection, AFC 2004/004: Us0Uh57v0Tg. Link to field recording video online at the Association for Cultural Equity here: https://archive.culturalequity.org/film-and-video/american-patchwork/sam-chatmon-little-liza-jane-1978

For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-10872