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Leadbelly

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Huddie Ledbetter (23 January 1888-6 December 1949) was a leading American blues singer and guitarist. His songbook contained a large number of standard folk tunes, most adapted from previous sources.

Leadbelly was born in Mooringsport, Louisiana, and spent time in and out of prison most of his life. In 1933, serving a sentence for attempted murder, musicologists John and Alan Lomax “discovered” him on a field recording tour sponsored by the Library of Congress. That summer, he was pardoned by the governor of Lousiana after recording his plea for pardon on a record, together with “

Good Night Irene”. Leadbelly went on to make hundreds of recordings of all sorts of different songs: country, blues, spirituals, reels, and work chants.
His songs have been covered by Mark Lanegan, The Animals, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Nirvana, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, British Sea Power, Ram Jam, Ry Cooder, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Half Man Half Biscuit, Tom Waits, Shocking Blue and The White Stripes.

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blues, folk, delta blues, acoustic, classic blues
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Top Tracks

1	Midnight Special full track	456
2	Where Did You Sleep Last Night? full track	390
3	Where Did You Sleep Last Night full track	295
4	Goodnight Irene full track	289
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6	The Bourgeois Blues full track	241
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11	The Gallis Pole full track	131
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13	New York City full track	109
14	How Long full track	104
15	Alberta full track	99

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gabethevegan wrote:
6 hours ago

Nice to see "Discovered" by John and Alan Lomax in Quotation Marks.The more you hear of Lead Belly,the more you realized(Biog aside)What a fuckin legend he was.Like The Carter Family he was a major influence on Popular Music at the same time being completely unique.Where did You Sleep last Night" is an harrowing masterpiece.You cant ignore his Personal history but when it came to music he seemed to have found himself,Just incapable of keeping it together..No excuse But America at this time was not a Great Place to be a Blackman,he was definately a conflicted Man...but a fuckin musical genius...............Hate the way his use of traditional folk songs is used as a put down,this was a normal practice at this time,and shit it has always happened,some people are just cleverer at covering their musical antecedents and direct liftings

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gnowave wrote:
last month

to alvarito, midight special was done by most of the 40/50s western swing bands, well worth checking out, juicey stuff

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gnowave wrote:
last month

hell yeh, this boy got de ryddim... blindingly good stuff

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alvarito27 wrote:
October 2009

yes "midnight special" was covered by the Creedence Clearwater Revival, is a great cover

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Yamber wrote:
October 2009

his bio is a lie

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lewischaplin wrote:
September 2009

fuck the name, it is about the music.

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dinkydauisshit wrote:
September 2009

This man is a murderer and a threat to society.

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The_Cole_Train wrote:
September 2009

Fuck sake, this name argument is starting to get tiresome.

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TheOnlyRoc wrote:
September 2009

Id just prefer to have the ability to listen to his playable tracks here. that is kinda the point of the site. whats the point of reverting to a page with no music?

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ritesofspring wrote:
September 2009

wiki says 'Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly," he himself spelled it "Lead Belly." This is also the usage on his tombstone as well as of the Lead Belly Foundation.'

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Lodeus wrote:
September 2009

Hes awesome either way

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JustinMacias wrote:
September 2009

Lead Belly is what is written on his tombstone

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Punk7680 wrote:
August 2009

Yeah, don't forget that space, it is so important. Who the fuck is Leadbelly? I only listen to Lead Belly.

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Elliott13371 wrote:
August 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly http://www.leadbelly.org/ http://tinyurl.com/njekdz

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mr_ahab wrote:
August 2009

its Leadbelly really

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mr_ahab wrote:
August 2009

nop ist Leadbelly

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nBeilWieASau wrote:
August 2009

Hollywood should make a movie about Leadbelly, his history is very interesting

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Elliott13371 wrote:
August 2009

its Lead Belly, not Leadbelly

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Tucanista wrote:
August 2009

Ah man this is BANGIN' - I forgot about this classic Blues Man

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GouldTerror wrote:
August 2009

he da shit for sure

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