I Don't Play No Rock 'n Roll Music!

In my search for musical bliss I came across a man named Mississippi Fred McDowell. I was reading up on Doug Martsch, the front man for Built to Spill, and found that much of the inspiration for his solo album came from Fred McDowell. I searched for anything that I could find about McDowell and found out that his first recordings, his discovery was by Alan Lomax. And in Lomax I found an entirely new genre of music for me. Gospel, Blues, and Folk, all rolled into one. It's musical genius. Lomax traveled the country, and the world, from the early 30's to his retirement in 1996 in search of Folk Music. He recorded Haitian witch doctors, Mississippi river boat captains, and indigenous people from across the globe. All in the search and preservation of the world's music. It's amazing to me what two people can do. Because of the work of Lomax and his father, John, we have hours and hours of music to enjoy, to discover. Many of these artists were never recorded before, and haven't been recorded since the Lomax recordings. What would have become of their music, would it have been passed on by word of mouth only, or would someone else have had the idea to preserve it?