Huddie William Ledbetter, better know as Lead Belly, was born 126 years ago today. An iconic folk and blues musician, and multi-instrumentalist, Lead Belly was noted for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced. Though many releases list him as Leadbelly, he spelled it Lead Belly. This is also the usage on his tombstone, as well as of the Lead Belly Foundation. In 1994, the Lead Belly Foundation contacted an authority on the history of popular music, Colin Larkin, editor of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, to ask if the name Leadbelly could be altered to Lead Belly in the hope that other authors would follow suit and use the artists correct appellation. Although Lead Belly most commonly played the twelve-string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad John Hardy, he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar. In other recordings he just sings while clapping his hands or stomping his foot. The topics of Lead Bellys music covered a wide range of subjects, including gospel songs; blues songs about women, liquor, prison life and racism; and folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding and dancing. He also wrote songs concerning the newsmakers of the day, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes. In 1930, Ledbetter was in a Louisiana prison for knifing a white man in a fight. It was there, three years later (1933), that he was discovered by folklorists John Lomax and his then 18-year-old son Alan Lomax during a visit to the Angola Prison Farm. Deeply impressed by his vibrant tenor voice and huge repertoire, they recorded him on portable aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of Congress. They returned to record with new and better equipment in July of the following year (1934), all in all recording hundreds of his songs. On August 1, Lead Belly was released (again having served almost all of his minimum sentence), this time after the Lomaxes had taken a petition to Louisiana Governor Oscar K. Allen at Ledbetters urgent request. The petition was on the other side of a recording of his signature song, Goodnight Irene. Bob Dylan once remarked, on his XM radio show, that Lead Belly was one of the few ex-cons who recorded a popular children’s album.” In 1949, Lead Belly was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrigs disease. His final concert was at the University of Texas in a tribute to his former mentor, John A. Lomax, who had died the previous year. Lead Belly died later that year in New York City at age 61. Here, Lead Belly performs “House of the Rising Son.”
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:15:55 +0000
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