Brittany Haas with Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project

Peghead Nation fiddle instructor Brittany Haas plays "What Is the Soul of Man" with Jayme Stone, Margaret Glaspy, Tim O'Brien, and Joe Phillips.

When Brittany Haas isn’t off climbing Kilimanjaro like she is this week, she can be found playing, touring, and recording with monster players like her bandmates in Hass Kowert Tice, Dave Rawlings Machine, and, as seen in this video from WAMU radio, Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project.

Canadian banjo player Jayme Stone dug deep into the field recordings of folklorist Alan Lomax to curate material for last year’s recording, Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project, and the tour supporting the album. He enlisted the help of many of today’s well-known players of traditional and contemporary acoustic music, like Tim O’Brien, Julian Lage, and Peghead Nation fiddle instructors Bruce Molsky and Brittany Haas, and also introduced many listeners to the beautiful, plaintive singing voice of Margaret Glaspy. 

A version of the song “What Is the Soul of Man” was recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1930. Alan Lomax recorded vocalist Vera Ward Hall singing the song in Lomax’s Greenwich Village apartment in 1948, and it is that recording that inspired the Lomax Project’s version.

Here, Brittany Haas plays fiddle, Tim O’Brien is on mandolin and harmony vocals, Jayme Stone on banjo, Joe Phillips on bass, and Margaret Glaspy on guitar and vocals.

Learn to play fiddle with Brittany Haas and some of the best fiddlers in roots music in Brittany’s Fiddle Styles Workshop on Peghead Nation.

Learn more about Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project.

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