John Lomax III collection

This collection consists of photographs of John Lomax III and musicians, including Lightnin’ Hopkins and  Townes Van Zandt.

Raised in Houston, John Marable Lomax (aka John Lomax III) followed his music-focused family. His grandfather, John Avery Lomax and uncle Alan Lomax had become "song collectors." And authors. His father, a land developer, also became a major force in Houston's folk scene, co-fouding the Houston Folklore Society and managing Lightnin' Hopkins.

John Lomax III began writing about music in 1971 as Music Editor for Space City News. He would continue to write for a variety of newspapers and magazines in America, Europe and Australia for nearly 50 years. He also wrote Nashville: Music City USA (1986) and Red Desert Sky: The Amazing Adventures of the Chambers family (2001). He collaborated with his brother Joe on a Townes Van Zandt Songbook in 1978. 

Lomax also worked for Cowboy Jack Clement’s JMI Records in Nashville in the 1970s. Following in his father's footsteps, he managed Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, David Schnaufer, The Cactus Brothers, and Kasey Chambers. 

In 1996, Lomax became U.S. A&R Coordinator for England’s Demon/Edsel Records. He assembled music compilations and wrote or commissioned detailed liner notes for fifty projects, including dozens from Huey Meaux’s Crazy Cajun Records archives. In 1996, Lomax started Roots Music Exporters and by 2020 had shipped over 750,000 CDs, LPs and DVDs to accounts on three continents. His close contacts in the Australian music world helped him lead the way to creating a Sister City relationship between Nashville and Tamworth, “Australia’s Country Music Capital”.

Lomax received the Country Music Association Jo Walker-Meador International Achievement Award in 2010. Ken Burns used seven of John's photos and eleven images from Lomax Photo Archives in his 2019 film/book/dvd, Country Music.

On the personal side, John’s son, Houston resident John Nova Lomax, was Music Editor/Staff Writer twelve years for the Houston Press, has authored   two books and written for numerous publications including Texas Monthly, Vice and Texas Highways.  John III’s daughter, Amanda Margaret Lomax,  a cum laude graduate of Boston University, is establishing a career in artistic photography following many years working for Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. 

In 1991 John married Rice graduate Frances Melanie Wells, whom he met at a Frank Davis & Rocky Hill show at Anderson Fair.  She is a retired R.N. who worked many years at St. Luke’s Hospital. They live in suburban Nashville.

The original materials are held by the Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library.