The Story of Leadbelly

Thanks edgar - I like leadbelly.

love to read it, when you do....

Me too, edgar. Great idea for a thread.

I'll be interested to find out more about Leadbelly, edgar. Sounds good!

Huddie Ledbetter, aka Leadbelly

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Huddie William Ledbetter was born on January 29, 1885 on the Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana. He was the only child of his parents Wesley and Sally. Huddie and his parents moved to Leigh, Texas when he was five and it was there that he became interested in music, encouraged by his uncle Terrell who bought Huddie his first musical instrument, an accordion.

It was some years later when Huddie picked up the guitar but by the age of 21 he had left home to wander around Texas and Louisiana trying to make his living as a musician. Over the next ten years Huddie wandered throughout the southwest eking out an existence by playing guitar when he could and working as a laborer when he had to.

Huddie Ledbetter was the world's greatest cotton picker, railroad track liner, lover, and drinker as well as guitar player. This assertion came from no less an authority on the matter than Huddie himself. Since not everyone agreed with his opinion Huddie frequently found himself obliged to convince them. His convincing frequently landed him in jail.

http://leadbelly.lanl.gov/leadbelly.html

The Leadbelly Legend
by Mike Epstein, [email protected]; comments are welcome. (1994)


Huddie Ledbetter, the great folk and blues singer better known as Leadbelly, gained much of his fame through his media portrayal as a two-time murderer in town to sing -- and drink -- between murders. This caricature of Leadbelly served to make him palatable and interesting to his white audiences, much as an animal in a zoo draws large crowds when in a cage.

It is difficult to know exactly what Leadbelly's life was like before he became famous, but much is known through often conflicting accounts told by Leadbelly and his relatives. Even the date of his birth is not certain. He is thought to have been born on 21 January 1885. On the day of his marriage to Martha Promise, 21 January 1935, he announced that it was his birthday; however, he said that day that he was forty-six, which is inconsistent with his likely birth in 1885. (1) This type of uncertainty about the circumstances of his early life contributed to the Leadbelly legend.

http://www.bozosoft.com/mike/writings/leadbelly.html

Who is Leadbelly?


Some folks are born to make music. Others are born to fight. Apparently an African American blues singer who went by the odd name of "Leadbelly", was born to do both -- and the latter was almost his undoing.


Once Leadbelly was convicted of murder. He served his time. Then he was tried and convicted of attempted murder and went right back into prison. In fact. Leadbelly spent much of his life in jail. While he was in the Louisiana State Prison, he met folklorist Alan Lomax who was traveling through the South collecting folk music. Lomax used his influence to get the prisoner a early release. Then, some time later, Leadbelly tried to kill Lomax, too.


Yet, in spite of his pugnacious and sometimes violent personality, Leadbelly achieved great success, not only as a blues performer but as a songwriter as well.


Huddie William Ledbetter was born in 1885 on the Jeter Plantation, near Mooringsport, Louisiana. At the age of five, his family moved to Leigh, Texas. It was in Texas that little Huddie first became interested in music. He was encouraged by his Uncle Terrell who bought the boy an accordion. Later, Huddie learned

http://pa.essortment.com/whoisleadbelly_rqrx.htm

Retrospective: The 1976 Film "Leadbelly"

By Al Handa


Gordon Park Sr.'s film, Leadbelly, opens with Lomax arriving at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, and wanting to meet a man named Huddie Ledbetter. Ledbetter, or as he's known as today, Leadbelly, comes in and the viewer sees a very different Afro-American than the cinema often portrayed.

Leadbelly is shown as an impressively built and powerful man, with a personality to match. However, when he sees the 12-string guitar that Lomax has brought, an affable and winning side emerges. Almost boyish in his enthusiasm to be holding a guitar again. In that scene, Parks establishes why this 12-string playing legend was so popular desspite a violent past.

This 1976 film was a marked departure from Park's previous blockbuster hit, "Shaft," which was an important film for it's own reasons. Shaft was a fast paced detective thriller that in 1971 presented the American movie goer with a very different sort of Black hero.

Shaft was good looking and strong, which in itself wasn't unusual. Black men were often impressive physical types in prior movies

http://www.netmagic.net/~snake/feature/movies.htm

Absolutely The Best


Leadbelly was one of the most influential and archetypal artists of the Blues tradition, and the breadth of this compilation serves as a fine introduction for those unfamiliar with his work. More scholar-oriented compilations abound- witness his Library of Congress catalog- this cd is clearly intended to distill a huge repertoire into a 15-track summary. What is most impressive about this collection is that it reminds the listener that blues is not a single musical style, but more properly a genre: A collection of related styles descended from a parent culture. And many of those styles that developed up until Leadbelly's death in 1949 are well represented here.
Born to sharecropper

http://www.canehdian.com/non/artists/l/leadbelly/best.html

I used to work in a record store (back in the day before CD's existed and then when they came on the market) and I have to say that Blues artists have got to have some of the oddest names I've ever encountered! *L* So those like P. Diddy certainly weren't the trailblazers for unique names.

Leadbelly was so nicknamed by his prison buddies, because he was an extremely rough customer.

I heard a really interesting radiocumentary, if that's a word, on Alan Lomax and Rounder Records.
I've posted a link in the portal section to the best radio station CKUA. They have a few really good blues shows, but as part of ongoing Athabasca University long-distance courses, there are a few interesting historical musical programs as well on every week. One is called from Blues to Bop, and the Rocky Road. A few years ago they did an indepth series on the Smilthsonian Folkways collection by another musically visionary - Moses Asch.
Just in case you're interested.

If you don't mind.... I think we need a photo on the thread:

My favorite Leadbelly song is not in the lyrics I provided a link to. I have two recordings of it by him, one called Black Girl and the other called My Girl. I believe the only difference is in how the girl is addressed.

Black girl black girl don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
I've been shivering the whole night through
Black girl black girl where will you go
I'm going where the cold winds blow
In the pine in the pines
Where the sun never shines
I've been shivering the whole night through
My husband was a railroad man
Killed a mile and a half from here
His head was caught in a driving wheel
And his body has never been found
Black girl black girl where will you go
I'm going where the cold winds blow