Editing Lead Belly

{{Short description|American folk and blues musician (1888–1949)}}
{{Redirect|Leadbelly|the biographical film on this person|Leadbelly (film)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| image             = Leadbelly with Accordeon.jpg
| caption           = Lead Belly with a [[Diatonic button accordion|melodeon]] {{circa}} 1942
| birth_name        = Huddie William Ledbetter
| alias             = {{hlist|Lead Belly|Leadbelly}}
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1888|1|23|}}<ref name="bare" /> ''(disputed)''
| birth_place       = [[Mooringsport, Louisiana]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1949|12|6|1888|1|23}}
| death_place       = New York City, U.S.
| instrument        = {{hlist|Guitar|vocals|accordion|piano}}
| genre             = {{hlist|[[Folk blues]]|[[Folk music|folk]]|[[gospel music|gospel]]|[[songster]]}}
| occupation        = Musician
| years_active      = 1903–1949
| label             = [[RCA Victor]], [[Asch Records|Asch]], [[Capitol Records|Capitol]]
}}

'''Huddie Ledbetter''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|j|uː|d|i}} {{respell|HYOO|dee}};<!--NOT ˈhʌdi--> January 1888<ref name="bare" /><ref name=":0" /> or 1889<ref name=":1" /><!-- Disputed (possible dates: 20 Jan 1888, 23 Jan 1888, 20 Jan 1889, 23 Jan 1889) --> – December 6, 1949),<ref name="bare">{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| year= 2013| title= Blues – A Regional Experience| publisher= Praeger Publishers| location= Santa Barbara| pages=301 | isbn= 978-0-313-34423-7}}</ref> better known by the stage name '''Lead Belly''', was an American [[folk music|folk]] and [[blues]] singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the [[twelve-string guitar]], and the folk standards he introduced, including his renditions of "[[In the Pines]]" (also known as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"), "[[Pick a Bale of Cotton]]", "[[Goodnight, Irene]]", "[[Midnight Special (song)|Midnight Special]]", "[[Cotton Fields]]", and "[[Boll Weevil (song)|Boll Weevil]]".

Lead Belly usually played a twelve-string guitar, but he also played the piano, [[mandolin]], harmonica, violin, and [[diatonic accordion|windjammer]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Snyder|first=Jared|title=Leadbelly and His Windjammer: Examining the African American Button Accordion Tradition|journal=American Music|date=Summer 1994|volume=12|issue=2|pages=148–166|doi=10.2307/3052520|jstor=3052520}}</ref> In some of his recordings, he sang while clapping his hands or stomping his foot.

Lead Belly's songs covered a wide range of genres, including [[gospel music]], [[blues]], and [[folk music]], as well as a number of topics, including women, liquor, prison life, racism, cowboys, work, sailors, cattle herding, and dancing. He also wrote songs about people in the news, such as [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Jean Harlow]], [[Jack Johnson (boxer)|Jack Johnson]], the [[Scottsboro Boys]] and [[Howard Hughes]]. Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 1988 and the [[Louisiana Music Hall of Fame]] in 2008.

Though many releases credit him as "Leadbelly", he wrote his name as "Lead Belly". This is the spelling on his tombstone<ref name="grave">{{Find a Grave|6121635|Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deltablues.net/lead3full.jpg |title=Delta Blues.net |access-date=September 22, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100919180227/http://deltablues.net/lead3full.jpg |archive-date=September 19, 2010}}</ref> and is used by the Lead Belly Foundation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leadbelly.org/re-homepage.html |title=Lead Belly Foundation |publisher=LeadBelly.org |access-date=September 22, 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123193411/http://www.leadbelly.org/re-homepage.html |archive-date=January 23, 2010}}</ref> He didn't care for the "Lead Belly" stage name and always introduced himself by his given name: Huddie Ledbetter.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/the-folk-musician-who-sang-himself-out-of-texas-s-most-brutal-prison/ar-BB1p3KHe |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.msn.com}}</ref>

== Biography ==
=== Personal life ===
[[File:"HUDDIE LEDBETTER" "REGISTRATION CARD" "SERIAL NUMBER U2214" "604 E 9TH ST., N.Y. N. Y." "DATE OF BIRTH 1-23-1889" "PLACE OF BIRTH FREEPORT LOUISIANA" and "MARTHA LEDBETTER", from- Lead Belly draft registration card, ca. 1942 (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|Lead Belly's draft registration card in 1942 (SERIAL NUMBER U2214 and address listed as 604 E 9TH ST., N.Y. N. Y.)]]

The only son of Sallie Brown and Wesley Ledbetter (she had an older son, and the couple adopted a daughter when Huddie was a toddler), Huddie Ledbetter was born on a plantation near [[Mooringsport, Louisiana]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Laberge|first1=Yves|title=The Blues Encyclopedia|publisher=Routledge|editor1-last=Komara|editor1-first=Edward|year=2006|pages=586–587|isbn=0-415-92699-8|url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=Hwk3AgAAQBAJ|page=586}}}}</ref> On his [[World War II]] draft registration card in 1942, he gave his birthplace as [[Caddo Parish, Louisiana|Freeport, Louisiana]] ("Shreveport"). There is uncertainty over his precise date and year of birth. The Lead Belly Foundation gives his birth date as January 20, 1889,<ref name=":1">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070715112913/http://www.leadbelly.org/leadbelly.html "About Lead Belly", ''The Lead Belly Foundation'']}}. Retrieved March 8, 2020.</ref> his grave marker gives the year 1889, and his 1942 draft registration card states January 23, 1889.

These records were made by census takers, and ages and dates were defined in terms of the census date. The [[1900 United States census]] lists "Hudy Ledbetter" as 12 years old, born January 1888, and the [[1910 United States census|1910]] and [[1930 United States census|1930]] censuses also give his age as corresponding to a birth in 1888. The 1940 census lists his age as 51, with information supplied by wife Martha. The books ''Blues: A Regional Experience'' by Eagle and LeBlanc and ''Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians'' by Tomko give January 23, 1888,<ref name="bare" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Tomko|first=Gene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZKzDwAAQBAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-0-8071-6932-2|location=Baton Rouge|pages=155}}</ref> while the ''Encyclopedia of the Blues'' gives January 20, 1888.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&q=komara+blues+leadbelly+1888&pg=PA586|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues|first=Edward M.|last=Komara|date=March 8, 2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-92699-7|access-date=March 8, 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref>

His parents had [[Cohabitation|cohabited]] for several years. They married on February 26, 1888, perhaps after his birth that year. When Huddie was five years old, the family settled in [[Bowie County, Texas]], where they eventually became landowners.

By the 1910 census of [[Harrison County, Texas]], "Hudy Ledbetter" was living next door to his parents in a separate household with his first wife, Aletha "Lethe" Henderson. Aletha is recorded as age 19 and married one year. Others say she was 15 when they married in 1908. Ledbetter received his first instrument in Texas, an [[accordion]], from his uncle Terrell. By his early twenties, having fathered at least two children, Ledbetter and his wife left for the Dallas/Fort Worth area, working as farm laborers while Ledbetter sought opportunities as a musician.

=== Music career ===
By 1903, Huddie was already a "musicianer",<ref name="wolfe">{{cite book|last1=Wolfe|first1=Charles|title=The Life and Legend of Leadbelly|last2=Lornell|first2=Kip|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|year=1992|isbn=0-06-016862-5|location=New York City}}</ref>{{rp|28}} a singer and guitarist of some note. He performed to [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, a notorious [[red-light district]]. He began to develop his own style of music after exposure to the various musical influences on Shreveport's Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottoms. This area is now referred to as Ledbetter Heights.

In 1915, Ledbetter briefly served on a Texas chain gang, from which he escaped. In 1918, under the name of Walter Boyd, he was convicted of murder in Texas and sentenced to 30 years in prison. After writing a song pleading for clemency Ledbetter was pardoned by Governor [[Pat Morris Neff]] in 1925.<ref name="Texas State Historical Association">{{cite web|url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ledbetter-huddie-leadbelly |title=Ledbetter, Huddie [Lead Belly] (1888–1949)|access-date=December 5, 2023}}</ref> In 1930, he was arrested, convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as the [[Louisiana State Penitentiary|Angola Penitentiary]], where he was "discovered" in a 1933 visit by [[folklorist]]s [[John Lomax]] and his teenaged son, [[Alan Lomax]].<ref>Santelli, Robert, 2015, ''Lead Belly: A Man of Contradiction and Complexity'', p. 17. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings</ref> They were recording varieties of local music in the South as a project to preserve traditional music for the Library of Congress. This was one of numerous cultural projects during the Great Depression.<ref name=pc18>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19768/m1/|author=Gilliland, John |title=Show 18 – Blowin' in the Wind: Pop Discovers Folk Music. Part 1|publisher=UNT Digital Library, University of North Texas, Digital.library.unt.edu|date=May 18, 1969|work=[[Pop Chronicles]]|access-date=September 22, 2010}}</ref>

Deeply impressed by Ledbetter's vibrant tenor and extensive repertoire, the Lomaxes recorded him in 1933 on portable [[aluminum disc]] recording equipment for the [[Library of Congress]] project. They returned with new and better equipment in July 1934, recording numerous songs. While in prison, Lead Belly may have first heard the traditional prison song "[[Midnight Special (song)|Midnight Special]]"; his versions became famous.<ref name="lomax">Lomax, Alan, ed. ''Folk Song USA''. New American Library.</ref> On August 1, Ledbetter was released after having served nearly all of his minimum sentence. The Lomaxes had taken a record and a petition seeking his release to Louisiana Governor [[Oscar K. Allen]] at Ledbetter's request, but there is no evidence that this had any effect on his release. In fact, a prison official later wrote to John Lomax denying that Ledbetter's singing had anything to do with his release from prison. (State prison records confirm he was eligible for this due to good behavior.) But, both Ledbetter and the Lomaxes promoted the idea that Ledbetter had yet again sung his way to freedom.  

With the [[Great Depression]] ongoing and Alan Lomax ill<ref name="lomax" /> and unable to assist his father in song collecting, Ledbetter and Lomax teamed up in September, 1934.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/the-folk-musician-who-sang-himself-out-of-texas-s-most-brutal-prison/ar-BB1p3KHe |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.msn.com}}</ref> For three months, Ledbetter, forty-six years old, assisted the 67-year-old Lomax in his folk song collecting around the South.  

In December 1934, Lead Belly participated in a "smoker" (group sing-along) at a [[Modern Language Association]] meeting at a hotel in Philadelphia. He was written up in the press as a convict who had sung his way out of prison. On New Year's Day, 1935, the pair arrived in New York City, where Lomax was scheduled to meet with his publisher, [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]], about a new collection of folk songs. The newspapers were eager to write about the "singing convict". [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine made one of its first ''[[March of Time]]'' [[newsreel]]s about him. Lead Belly attained fame''—''although not fortune.

On January 23–25, 1935, Lead Belly had the first of several recording sessions with [[American Record Corporation]] (ARC). These sessions, combined with two others on February 5 and March 25, yielded 53 takes. Of those recordings, only six were ever released during Lead Belly's lifetime. ARC decided to simultaneously release these songs on six different labels they owned: Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, and Paramount.<ref name="wolfe" />{{rp|159–60, 292–95}} These recordings achieved little commercial success. Part of the reason for the poor sales may have been that ARC released only his [[blues]] songs rather than the folk songs for which he would later become better known. Lead Belly continued to struggle financially. Like many performers, what income he made during his career came from touring, not from record sales. In February 1935, he married his girlfriend, Martha Promise, who came north from Louisiana to join him.

During February Ledbetter recorded his repertoire with Alan Lomax, who also recorded other African Americans. Lomax interviewed Ledbetter about his life for their forthcoming book, ''Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly'' (1936). The Lomax book contains numerous sensational accounts of uncertain authenticity.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/the-folk-musician-who-sang-himself-out-of-texas-s-most-brutal-prison/ar-BB1p3KHe |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.msn.com}}</ref> According to the authors, the work was not an "accurate biography" but a "loosely woven texture of unreconstructed stories."<ref name=":2" />

In March 1935, Lead Belly accompanied John Lomax on a previously scheduled two-week lecture tour of colleges and universities in the Northeast, culminating at [[Harvard University|Harvard]]. At the end of the month, John Lomax decided he could no longer work with Lead Belly. He gave him and Martha enough money to return by bus to Louisiana. He also gave Martha the money her husband had earned during three months of performing, but in installments, on the pretext that Lead Belly would spend it all on drinking if he was given a lump sum. From Louisiana, Lead Belly successfully sued Lomax for both the full amount of his earnings and release from his management contract. The quarrel was bitter, with hard feelings on both sides. In the midst of the legal wrangling, Lead Belly wrote to Lomax proposing they team up again, but this did not happen. The book that the Lomaxes published about Lead Belly in the fall of 1936 proved a commercial failure.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porterfield |first=Nolan |title=Last Cavalier: The Life and Times of John A. Lomax, 1867-1948 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=1996 |isbn=9780252069710 |pages=398}}</ref> 

In January 1936, Lead Belly returned to New York on his own, without John Lomax, in an attempted comeback. He performed twice a day at Harlem's [[Apollo Theater]] during the Easter season. He developed a live dramatic recreation of the ''March of Time'' newsreel (itself a recreation), which was about his prison encounter with John Lomax, when he was still wearing uniform stripes. By this time he was no longer associated with Lomax.

[[File:Face detail, (Portrait of Leadbelly, National Press Club, Washington, D.C., between 1938 and 1948) (LOC) (4843137007) (cropped) (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|upright|Lead Belly at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] in Washington, D.C. between 1938 and 1948]]
[[Life (magazine)|''Life'']] magazine ran a three-page article titled "Lead Belly: Bad Nigger Makes Good Minstrel" in its issue of April 19, 1937. It included a full-page, color (rare in those days) picture of him sitting on grain sacks playing his guitar and singing.<ref name="life">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kksEAAAAMBAJ&q=life%20april%2019%2C%201937&pg=PA38 |title=LIFE Magazine – Google Books|pages=38–40|date= April 19, 1937|access-date=December 30, 2011}}</ref> Also included was a striking photograph of his wife Martha Promise (identified in the article as his manager). Other photos showed Lead Belly's hands playing the guitar (with the caption "these hands once killed a man"), Texas Governor [[Pat M. Neff]], and the "ramshackle" Texas State Penitentiary. The article attributes both of his pardons to his singing his petitions to the governors, who were so moved that they pardoned him. The article closed by saying that Lead Belly "may well be on the brink of a new and prosperous period."<ref name="life" />

Lead Belly failed to stir the enthusiasm of [[Harlem]] audiences. Instead, he attained success playing at concerts and benefits for an audience of [[folk music]] aficionados. He developed his own style of singing and explaining his repertoire in the context of Southern black culture, having learned from his participation in Lomax's college lectures. He was especially successful with his repertoire of children's game songs (as a younger man in Louisiana he had sung regularly at children's birthday parties in the black community). Black novelist [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]] wrote about him as a heroic figure in the ''[[Daily Worker]],'' of which Wright was the Harlem editor. The two men became personal friends. In contrast to Wright, who was then a communist, commentators described Lead Belly as apolitical. He was known to support [[Wendell Willkie]], the centrist [[U.S. Republican Party|Republican]] candidate for president, for whom he wrote a campaign song. Lead Belly also wrote the song "[[The Bourgeois Blues]]", which has class-conscious  and anti-racist lyrics.

In 1939, Lead Belly was involved in an altercation after a small gathering in New York City and accused of stabbing a man. Alan Lomax, then 24, took him under his wing and helped raise money for his legal expenses, dropping out of graduate school to do so. But based in part on Ledbetter's apparent notoriety, the judge sentenced him to a year in Rikers.  After gaining release, Lead Belly appeared as a regular on Lomax and [[Nicholas Ray]]'s groundbreaking [[CBS]] radio show ''Back Where I Come From'', broadcast nationwide.

He also performed in nightclubs with [[Josh White]], becoming a fixture in New York City's surging folk music scene and befriending the likes of [[Sonny Terry]], [[Brownie McGhee]], [[Woody Guthrie]], and [[Pete Seeger]], all fellow performers on ''Back Where I Come From''.<ref name="mudcat" />

In 1940, Lead Belly recorded for RCA Victor, one of the biggest record companies at the time. These sessions in California were held on June 15 and 17, with the [[Golden Gate Quartet]] accompanying some songs. The recordings resulted in the album, ''[[The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs]]'', being issued by [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor Records]]. The album included sheets with extensive notes and song texts prepared by Alan Lomax. According to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, "it was one of the finest public presentations of Leadbelly's music: well recorded, well advertised, well documented. And the album justified its reputation as a landmark in African American folk music."<ref name="wolfe" />{{Rp|220–22, 298–300}} Several of the recordings from these sessions were also issued as singles by [[Bluebird Records]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=UC Santa Barbara Library|title=Leadbelly|url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102558|access-date=December 5, 2020|website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}}</ref>

In 1941, Lead Belly was introduced to [[Moses Asch|Moses "Moe" Asch]] by mutual friends. Asch owned a recording studio and small record label, which mainly released folk records for the local New York City market. He later founded [[Folkways Records]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Place|first=Jeff|url=https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40201.pdf|title=Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection|date=2015|publisher=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings|isbn=978-0-9704942-5-2|place=Washington|chapter=The Life and Legacy of Lead Belly|id={{UPC|093074020128}}|access-date=April 6, 2021|archive-date=April 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413173745/https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40201.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|22–23}} Between 1941 and 1944, Lead Belly released three albums under the Asch Recordings label.<ref name="wolfe" />{{rp|225–26, 304–07}} During the first half of the 1940s, Lead Belly also recorded for the [[Library of Congress]].

Lead Belly frequently performed ''Southern Blues'' at concerts by [[Si-Lan Chen|Si-lan Chen]].<ref name=":Gao">{{Cite book |last=Gao |first=Yunxiang |title=Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century |date=2021 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=9781469664606 |location=Chapel Hill, NC |pages=211}}</ref>

In 1944 he went to California, where he recorded strong sessions for [[Capitol Records]]. He lodged with a studio guitar player on Merrywood Drive in Laurel Canyon. Later he returned to New York City. In 1949, Lead Belly had a regular radio show, ''Folk Songs of America'', broadcast on station WNYC in New York, on [[Henrietta Yurchenco]]'s show on Sunday nights. Later in the year he began his first European tour with a trip to France, but fell ill before its completion and was diagnosed with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]] (ALS), or [[Lou Gehrig]]'s disease (a motor neuron disease).<ref name=pc18 /> Lead Belly was the first American country blues musician to achieve success in Europe.<ref name="mudcat" /> His final concert was at the [[University of Texas at Austin]] in a tribute to his former mentor, [[John Lomax]], who had died the previous year. Martha also performed at that concert, singing spirituals with Lead Belly. 

Ledbetter died later that year in New York City. He was buried in the Shiloh Baptist Church cemetery, in [[Mooringsport, Louisiana]], {{convert|8|mi|km}} west of [[Blanchard, Louisiana|Blanchard]], in Caddo Parish.<ref name="grave" /> He is honored with a statue across from the Caddo Parish Courthouse, in [[Shreveport]]. Ledbetter's niece, activist Greshun De Bouse, founded National Huddie Ledbetter Day (August 1 annually), and received proclamations from the mayors of Oil City, LA (where Lead Belly worked) and Shreveport, LA in 2023.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://eventguide.com/d/114905.htm|title=National Huddie Ledbetter Day|website=Eventguide.com}}</ref>


=== Legal issues ===
[[File:Huddie William Ledbetter in July 1934, from- Angola Prison -- Leadbelly in the foreground (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|right|Lead Belly inside the Angola Prison, July 1934]]
Lead Belly was imprisoned multiple times beginning in 1915, when he was convicted of carrying a pistol and sentenced to time on the Harrison County [[chain gang]]. He later escaped and found work in nearby [[Bowie County, Texas|Bowie County]] under the assumed name of Walter Boyd.

In January 1918, he was imprisoned at the Imperial Farm (now [[Central Unit]])<ref name="Perkinson184">Perkinson, Robert (2010). ''Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. [[Metropolitan Books]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HOxmcfIopugC&dq=Lead+Belly+%22Imperial+Farm%22&pg=PA184 184]. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-8069-8}}.</ref> in [[Sugar Land, Texas]], after being convicted of killing a relative, Will Stafford. In 1925, he was pardoned and released after writing a song to Texas Governor [[Pat Morris Neff]] seeking his freedom, having served the minimum seven years of a 7-to-35-year sentence. He was credited with good behavior, which included entertaining the guards and fellow prisoners. He also appealed for mercy to Neff's known religious beliefs. It was a testament to his persuasive powers, as Neff had run for governor on a pledge not to issue pardons (most Southern judicial systems had no provision for approving parole from prison).<ref>{{cite web |title=Today in Masonic History |url=https://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=11&new_day=26&new_year=2017##targetText=In%201920%2C%20Neff%20defeated%20a,Texas%2C%20there%20was%20no%20parole. |website=MASONRYTODAY.com |access-date=October 31, 2019 |date=November 26, 2017}}</ref> After meeting Lead Belly in 1924, Neff returned to the prison several times after he was incarcerated again. He brought guests to the prison on Sunday picnics to hear Ledbetter perform.<ref name="wolfe" />{{rp|85}}

In 1930, Ledbetter was sentenced to [[Louisiana State Penitentiary]] (nicknamed "Angola") after a summary trial for attempted homicide for stabbing a man in a fight. In 1939, Lead Belly served his final jail term for assault after stabbing a man in a fight in [[Manhattan]].

=== Nicknamed "Lead Belly" ===
[[File:Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and Martha Promise Ledbetter, Wilton, Conn..jpg|left|thumb|Lead Belly and Martha Promise Ledbetter, [[Wilton, Connecticut]], February 1935]]
There are several conflicting stories about how Ledbetter acquired the nickname "Lead Belly", it probably happened while he was in prison. Some claim his fellow inmates called him "Lead Belly" as a play on his family name and his physical toughness. Others say he earned the name after being wounded in the stomach with [[buckshot]].<ref name="mudcat">The Mudcat Cafe. [http://www.mudcat.org/huddie.cfm Leadbelly – King of the 12 String Guitar] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102033526/http://www.mudcat.org/huddie.cfm |date=January 2, 2016 }} Retrieved on January 30, 209</ref> Another theory is that the name refers to his ability to drink [[moonshine]], the homemade liquor that Southern farmers, black and white, made to supplement their incomes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Neff |first=Kyle |title=Research Guides: Louisiana Music History: Materials in Special Collections: Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter |url=https://guides.lib.lsu.edu/LouisianaMusic/leadbelly |access-date=2022-08-29 |website=guides.lib.lsu.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Blues singer [[Big Bill Broonzy]] thought it came from a supposed tendency to lie about as if "with a stomach weighted down by lead" in the shade when the chain gang was supposed to be working.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Terkel | first = Studs | author-link = Studs Terkel | year = 2009 | title = And They All Sang | publisher = New Press}}</ref>

However, his strong local accent is most likely to have led to the nickname. Huddie Ledbetter from Shreveport, became Huddie Leadbelly from Freeport.

== Technique ==
Lead Belly styled himself "King of the Twelve-String Guitar", and despite his use of other instruments, such as the accordion, the most enduring image of Lead Belly as a performer is wielding his unusually large [[Stella (guitar)|Stella]] twelve-string.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2009/11/stella-12-string-guitar.html|title=The Unique Guitar Blog: The Stella 12 String Guitar|first=Marcus|last=Ohara|website=Uniqueguitar.blogspot.com|date=November 22, 2009}}</ref> This guitar had a slightly longer [[Scale length (string instruments)|scale length]] than a standard guitar, increasing the tension on the instrument, which, given the added tension of the six extra strings, meant that a trapeze-style tailpiece was needed to help resist bridge lifting. It had slotted tuners and ladder bracing.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Lead Belly played with finger picks much of the time, using a thumb pick to provide walking bass lines described as "tricky" and "inventive",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/12-string-king-lead-bellys-big-bottom-blues|title=12-String King:Lead Belly's Big-Bottom Blues|first=Dale|last=Turner |website=Guitarworld.com|date=February 23, 2017 |access-date=January 6, 2020}}</ref> and occasionally to strum.{{Citation needed|date= October 2012}} This technique, combined with low tunings and heavy strings, gives many of his recordings a piano-like sound. Scholars have suggested much of his guitar playing was inspired equally by [[boogie-woogie|barrelhouse piano]] and the Mexican [[Bajo Sexto]], a type of guitar that he encountered in Texas and Louisiana.<ref>Komara, Edward M. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&dq=lead+belly+guitar+technique&pg=PA434 ''Encyclopedia of the Blues'']. 2006, Psychology Press,  p. 434.</ref>

Lead Belly's tunings are debated by both modern and contemporary musicians and blues enthusiasts alike, but it seems to be a down-tuned variant of standard tuning. Footage of his chording is scarce, so trying to decode his chords is difficult. It is likely that he tuned his guitar strings relative to one another, so that the actual notes shifted as the strings wore. Such down-tuning was a common technique before the development of [[truss rod]]s, and was intended to prevent the instrument's neck from warping. 

Lead Belly's playing style was popularized by [[Pete Seeger]], who adopted the twelve-string guitar in the 1950s and released an instructional LP and book using Lead Belly as an exemplar of technique. In an April 1963 interview on Folk Music Worldwide, Seeger characterized Lead Belly as his silent mentor: "Yeah, and when I stop to think of it, he was my main music teacher although he didn't know it. I'd follow him around and watch his hands closely. I admired him so."<ref>{{Cite web |title=PETE SEEGER - Folk Music Worldwide, 1963 Interview |url=https://www.folkmusicworldwide.com/pete-seeger.html |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=www.folkmusicworldwide.com}}</ref>

In some of the recordings in which Lead Belly accompanied himself, he made an unusual type of grunt between his verses, sometimes described as "haah!" Songs such as "Looky Looky Yonder", "[[Take This Hammer]]",<ref name=pc18 /> "Linin' Track", and "Julie Ann Johnson" feature this unusual vocalization. In "Take This Hammer", Lead Belly explained: "Every time the men say, 'Haah,' the hammer falls. The hammer rings, and we swing, and we sing."<ref>{{YouTube|CJkhdhLndyo|Lead Belly singing "Take This Hammer"}}. Retrieved January 30, 2008.</ref> The "haah" sound can also be heard in work chants sung by Southern railroad section workers, "[[gandy dancer]]s", in which it was used to coordinate work crews as they laid and maintained tracks.

== Legacy ==
{{Further|List of cover versions of Lead Belly songs}}
In 1976, a highly fictionalized biopic titled ''[[Leadbelly (film)|Leadbelly]]'' was released, directed by [[Gordon Parks]] and featuring [[Roger E. Mosley]] as Lead Belly.

In 1950, [[The Weavers]]' recording of their arrangement of Lead Belly's "Irene", released as "[[Good Night, Irene]]", was the first folk song to reach #1 on the U.S. charts, selling some two million copies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Seeger |first1=Pete |editor1-last=Schwartz |editor1-first=Jo Metcalf |title=The Incompleat Folksinger |date=1972 |publisher=Fireside Books, Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0-671-22304-6 |page=461}}</ref>

[[Kurt Cobain]] promoted the legacy of Lead Belly, and some modern rock audiences owe their familiarity with Lead Belly to Nirvana's performance of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (which Lead Belly called "[[In the Pines]]") on a televised concert later released as ''[[MTV Unplugged in New York]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmkAk0MgTGg&list=PLE7774393C318DBA4&index=14| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/GmkAk0MgTGg| archive-date=November 7, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Where Did You Sleep Last Night|date=January 10, 2011|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Cobain refers to his attempt to convince [[David Geffen]] to purchase Lead Belly's guitar for him in an interval before the song is played. In his notebooks, Cobain listed Lead Belly's ''Last Session Vol. 1''  as one of the 50 albums most influential in the formation of Nirvana's sound.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|title=Top 50 by Nirvana |url=http://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/journal/top-50-by-nirvana/ |access-date=May 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018034220/http://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/journal/top-50-by-nirvana/ |archive-date=October 18, 2014 }}</ref> It was included in ''[[NME]]'s'' "The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard list".<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.nme.com/list/100-lost-albums-you-need-to-know-1337 | title=The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard | date=August 30, 2018 | access-date=October 11, 2018 |publisher=[[NME]]}}</ref>

[[Ram Jam]], an American rock band, had a hit with the song "[[Black Betty]]", which they adapted into a rock song in 1977. "Black Betty" was recorded by Lead Belly in 1939.

[[Bob Dylan]] credits Lead Belly for getting him into folk music. In his [[2016 Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]] lecture, Dylan said "somebody – somebody I'd never seen before – handed me a Lead Belly record with the song '[[Cotton Fields]]' on it. And that record changed my life right then and there. Transported me into a world I'd never known. It was like an explosion went off. Like I'd been walking in darkness and all of the sudden the darkness was illuminated. It was like somebody laid hands on me. I must have played that record a hundred times."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2016/dylan/lecture/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016|website=NobelPrize.org}}</ref> Dylan also pays homage to him in "[[Song to Woody]]" on his [[Bob Dylan (album)|self-titled debut album]].

Lead Belly recordings were instrumental in starting the British [[skiffle revival]], which in turn produced several musicians prominent during the [[British Invasion]]. [[Lonnie Donegan]]'s recording of "[[Rock Island Line]]", released as a single in late 1955, signaled the start of the skiffle craze. [[George Harrison]] of [[The Beatles]] was quoted as saying, "if there was no Lead Belly, there would have been no Lonnie Donegan; no Lonnie Donegan, no Beatles. Therefore no Lead Belly, no Beatles."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/incomparable-legacy-of-lead-belly-180954390/|title=The Incomparable Legacy of Lead Belly|first=Roger|last=Catlin|website=Smithsonian}}</ref> In a [[BBC]] tribute in 1999, which marked the 50th anniversary of Lead Belly's death, [[Van Morrison]] – while sitting alongside [[Ronnie Wood]] of [[The Rolling Stones]] – claimed that the British popular music scene of the 1960s wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Lead Belly's influence. "I'd put my money on that," he said. Wood concurred.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/lead-belly-has-inspired-a-music-generation-335558.html|title=Lead Belly has inspired a music generation|first=Richard |last=Fitzpatrick|date=June 10, 2015|website=Irishexaminer.com}}</ref>

Indian singer [[Bhupen Hazarika]]—who was, in general, influenced by spirituals during his days as a student in the US—transcreated Lead Belly's singing of "We're in the Same Boat Brother" <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW03545.pdf|title=Earl Robinson Sings: Folkways Records FG3545|date=1963|website=media.smithsonianfolkways.org}}</ref> into the [[Assamese language]] as "''Ami ekekhon nawore zatri''" (আমি একেখন নাৱৰে যাত্ৰী).<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Majaw|first1=Lou|last2=Lyngdoh|first2=Andrew|title=We are in the same boat brother...|work=[[The Telegraph (Kolkata)|The Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/north-east/we-are-in-the-same-boat-brother/cid/349444}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Dutta|first=Pranjal|title=The African American Bhupen Hazarika|work=[[The Sentinel (Guwahati)|The Sentinel]]|url=https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/the-african-american-bhupen-hazarika-509971|date=November 5, 2020}}</ref> Later, he also released a [[Bengali language]] version as "''Mora jatri eki toronir''" (মোরা যাত্রী একই তরণীর).<ref>{{Cite web|title=More jatri eki toronir testo|url=http://testicanzoni.mtv.it/testi-Dr.-Bhupen-Hazarika_25705012/testo-Mora-Jatri-Eki-Taranir-63768835|website=MTV Testi Canzoni}}</ref>

In 2001 English-Canadian blues singer [[Long John Baldry]] released his final studio album, ''[[Remembering Leadbelly]]''. It contains cover versions of Lead Belly songs, and features a six-minute [[Alan Lomax]] interview.

[[George Ezra]] developed his singing style from trying to sing like Lead Belly. "On the back of the record, it said his voice was so big, you had to turn your record player down," Ezra says. "I liked the idea of singing with a big voice, so I tried it, and I could."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/09/14/george-ezra-budapest-on-the-verge/14706583/|title=On the Verge: George Ezra arrives by way of 'Budapest'|website=Usatoday.com}}</ref>

In 2015, in celebration of Lead Belly's 125th birthday, several events were held. [[The Kennedy Center]], in collaboration with the [[Grammy Museum]] held ''Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster,'' a musical event featuring [[Robert Plant]], [[Alison Krauss]], and [[Buddy Miller]] with [[Viktor Krauss]] as headliners and [[Dom Flemons]] as host, with special appearances by [[Lucinda Williams]], [[Alvin Youngblood Hart]], [[Billy Hector]], [[Valerie June]], [[Shannon McNally]], [[Josh White Jr.]], and [[Dan Zanes]], among others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://grammymuseum.org/event/lead-belly-at-125-a-tribute-to-an-american-songster/|title=Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster &#124; GRAMMY Museum|website=Grammymuseum.org}}</ref> Also in Washington, D.C., ''Bourgeois Town: Lead Belly in Washington DC'' by the [[Library of Congress]] was held where Todd Harvey interviewed Lead Belly family members about their relative, his contributions to American culture and world music and an overview of the significant Lead Belly materials in the center's archive.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6854/|title=Bourgeois Town: Lead Belly in Washington DC|website=Library of Congress}}</ref> In London, England, the [[Royal Albert Hall]] held ''Lead Belly Fest'', a musical event featuring [[Van Morrison]], [[Eric Burdon]], [[Jools Holland]], [[Billy Bragg]], [[Paul Jones (singer)|Paul Jones]], and more.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2015/lead-belly-fest/|title=Lead Belly Fest &#124; Royal Albert Hall|website=Royal Albert Hall}}</ref>

=== The Titanic ===
Influenced by the sinking of the ''[[Titanic]]'' in April 1912, Ledbetter wrote the song "The Titanic",<ref>{{YouTube|Qe5tcr0yHN4|"The Titanic" by Leadbelly}}</ref> his first composition on the twelve-string guitar, which later became his signature instrument. Initially played when performing with [[Blind Lemon Jefferson]] (1893–1929) in and around [[Dallas]], Texas, the song is about champion African-American boxer [[Jack Johnson (boxer)|Jack Johnson]]'s being denied passage on the ''Titanic''. Johnson had in fact [[Jack Johnson (boxer)#Popular culture|been denied passage on a ship]] for being black, but it was not the ''Titanic''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558493834|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558493834/page/124 124]|quote=Jack Johnson denied access on Titanic.|author=Dinerstein, Joel|date=April 1, 2003|access-date=November 18, 2011}}</ref> Still, the song includes the lyric "Jack Johnson tried to get on board. The Captain, he says, 'I ain't haulin' no coal!' Fare thee, ''Titanic''! Fare thee well!" Ledbetter later noted he had to leave out this passage when playing in front of white audiences.<ref>''Lead Belly's Last Sessions'', disc 2, track 15, "The Titanic". [[Smithsonian Folkways]].</ref>

==="Stay woke"===
In possibly the earliest audio recording of the phrase, Lead Belly urged [[Black people|Black]] listeners to "[[stay woke]]" in the spoken afterword to a 1938 recording of his song "Scottsboro Boys", which tells the story of [[Scottsboro Boys|nine Black teenagers and young men falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931]]. Lead Belly warns his listeners, "So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy |title=A history of 'wokeness' |website=Vox |first=Aja |last=Romano |date=9 October 2020 |access-date=June 28, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/09/what-is-woke-meaning/11425775002/ |title=What is the meaning of 'woke'? Once a term used by Black Americans, it's now a rallying cry for GOP |website=USA Today |first=Mabinty |last=Quarshie |date=March 9, 2023 |access-date=June 28, 2023}}</ref>

== Discography ==
{{Further|List of songs recorded by Lead Belly}}

=== Singles ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Release Year
!Title
(A-side/B-side)
!Label
!Catalog Number
!Recording Date
!Matrix Number
!Notes
|-
| rowspan="6" |1935
| rowspan="6" |All Out and Down
Packin' Trunk
|Banner
|33359
| rowspan="6" |January 23, 1935
| rowspan="6" |16688-2
16685-1
| rowspan="6" |[[American Record Corporation]] simultaneously released these songs on six different labels they owned
|-
|Melotone
|M13326
|-
|Oriole
|8438
|-
|Perfect
|0314
|-
|Romeo
|5438
|-
|Paramount
|14006
|-
| rowspan="6" |1935
| rowspan="6" |Four Day Worry Blues
New Black Snake Moan
|Banner
|33360
| rowspan="6" |January 23, 1935
| rowspan="6" |16689-2
16691-2
| rowspan="6" |[[American Record Corporation]] simultaneously released these songs on six different labels they owned
|-
|Melotone
|M13327
|-
|Oriole
|8439
|-
|Perfect
|0315
|-
|Romeo
|5439
|-
|Paramount
|14017
|-
| rowspan="6" |1936
| rowspan="6" |Becky Deem, She Was a Gamblin' Girl
Pig Meat Papa
|Banner
|6-04-55
| rowspan="6" |January 23, 1935,
March 25, 1935
| rowspan="6" |16678-1
17181-1
| rowspan="6" |[[American Record Corporation]] simultaneously released these songs on six different labels they owned
|-
|Melotone
|6-04-55
|-
|Oriole
|6-04-55
|-
|Perfect
|6-04-55
|-
|Romeo
|6-04-55
|-
|Paramount
|6-04-55
|-
|1940
|Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On
Don't You Love Your Daddy No More?
|Bluebird
|B-8550
|June 15, 1940,
June 17, 1940
|051505
051325
|
|-
|1940
|[[Alberta (blues)|Alberta]]
T.B. Blues
|Bluebird
|B-8559
|June 15, 1940
|051507
051503
|
|-
|1940
|[[See See Rider|Easy Rider]]
Worried Blues
|Bluebird
|B-8570
|June 17, 1940
|051322
051324
|
|-
|1941
|Roberta
The Red Cross Store Blues
|Bluebird
|B-8709
|June 15, 1940
|051506
051504
|
|-
|1941
|New York City
You Can't Lose-a Me Cholly
|Bluebird
|B-8750
|June 17, 1940
|051323-1
051326-1
|
|-
|1941
|Good Morning Blues
Leaving Blues
|Bluebird
|B-8791
|June 15, 1940
|051501
051502
|
|-
|1942
|I'm on My Last Go-Round
|Bluebird
|B-8981
|June 15, 1940
|051508-1
|This was the b-side to "Thirsty Mama Blues" by the [[Hot Lips Page]] Trio
|-
|1945<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=October 6, 1945|title=Advance Record Releases|volume=57|page=85|magazine=Billboard|issue=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhgEAAAAMBAJ|access-date=May 30, 2021|issn=0006-2510}}</ref>
|[[Rock Island Line]]
Eagle Rock Rag
|Capitol
|10021
|October 4, 1944,
October 27, 1944
|398-3A1
457-2A
|Included in the five-disc Capitol Album CE-16, ''The History of Jazz Vol. 1: The 'Solid' South''
|-
|1946<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=April 13, 1946|title=Advance Record Releases|volume=58|page=124|magazine=Billboard|issue=15|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RkEAAAAMBAJ|access-date=July 7, 2021|issn=0006-2510}}</ref>
|Yellow Gal
When the Boys Were on the Western Plain
|Musicraft
|310
|February 17, 1944
|5129
5130-1
|
|-
|1946
|Roberta
[[John Hardy (song)|John Hardy]]
|Musicraft
|311
|February 17, 1944
|5126-3
5133
|
|-
|1946
|[[Where Did You Sleep Last Night?]]
In New Orleans
|Musicraft
|312
|February 17, 1944
|5128
5132
|
|-
|1946
|Bill Brady
Pretty Flowers in Your Back Yard
|Musicraft
|313
|February 17, 1944
|5127
5131
|
|-
|1946<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=June 29, 1946|title=Advance Record Releases|volume=58|page=30|magazine=Billboard|issue=26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxoEAAAAMBAJ|access-date=May 30, 2021|issn=0006-2510}}</ref>
|[[See See Rider|Easy Rider]]
Pigmeat
|Disc
|5501
|June 1946
|
|
|-
|1947<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=September 6, 1947|title=Advance Record Releases|volume=59|page=31|magazine=Billboard|issue=35|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VAwEAAAAMBAJ|access-date=May 30, 2021|issn=0006-2510}}</ref>
|Sweet Mary Blues
Grasshopers in My Pillow
|Capitol
|A40038
|October 27, 1944
|459-2A
460-3A
|
|-
|1948
|[[Goodnight, Irene|Irene]]
[[Backwater Blues]]
|Capitol
|40130
|October 11, 1944
|413-3A
416-3A
|
|-
|1948<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=February 14, 1948|title=Advance Record Releases|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gfUDAAAAMBAJ|magazine=Billboard|volume=60|issue=7|page=123|issn=0006-2510|access-date=July 5, 2021}}</ref>
|Digging My Potatoes
Defense Blues
|Disc
|5085
|June 1946
|D-385
D-386
|
|}

=== Albums ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Release Year
!Title
!Label
!Catalog Number
!Notes
|-
|1939
|''[[Negro Sinful Songs]]''
|Musicraft
|Album 31
|
|-
|1940
|''[[The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs]]''
|Victor
|P-50
|
|-
|1941
|''[[Play Parties in Song and Dance]]''
|Asch
|
|
|-
|1942
|''[[Work Songs of the U.S.A.]]''
|Asch
|
|
|-
|1944
|''[[Songs by Lead Belly]]''
|Asch
|A-343
|
|-
|1946
|''[[Negro Folk Songs]]''
|Disc
|660
|
|-
|1947
|''[[Midnight Special (Lead Belly album)|Midnight Special]]''
|Disc
|726
|Featuring Woody Guthrie and Cisco Huston
|}

== Posthumous discography ==

=== The Library of Congress recordings ===
The [[Library of Congress]] recordings, made by [[John Lomax|John]] and [[Alan Lomax]] from 1934 to 1943, were released in a six-volume series by [[Rounder Records]]:

* ''Midnight Special'' (1991)
* ''Gwine Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In'' (1991)
* ''Let It Shine on Me'' (1991)
* ''The Titanic'' (1994)
* ''Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen'' (1994)
* ''Go Down Old Hannah'' (1995)

=== Folkways recordings ===
The [[Folkways Records|Folkways]] recordings, done for [[Moses Asch]] from 1941 to 1947, were released in a three-volume series by [[Smithsonian Folkways]]:

* ''Where Did You Sleep Last Night'', Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 1 (1996)
* ''Bourgeois Blues'', Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 2 (1997)
* ''Shout On'', Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 3 (1998)

[[Smithsonian Folkways]] has released several other collections of his recordings:

* ''[[Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs]]'' (1989)
* ''Lead Belly's Last Sessions'' (4-CD box set, 1994), recorded late 1948 in New York City;<ref>[http://www.discogs.com/release/2877274 ''Leadbelly's Last Sessions'', vol. 1]. Folkways Records (FP 241) U.S.</ref> his only commercial recordings on [[magnetic tape]]
* ''[[Lead Belly Sings for Children]]'' (1999)
* ''Folkways: The Original Vision'', Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly (2004), expanded version of the 1989 compilation
* ''[[Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection]]'' (2015)<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mazor|first1=Barry|title=Going From Prison Zero to Folk Hero|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=February 25, 2015|page=D5}}</ref><ref>[http://www.discogs.com/release/6711938 ''The Smithsonian Folkways Collection'', 2015 remastered compilation]. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (SFW 40201) U.S.</ref>

=== Live recordings ===
* ''Leadbelly Recorded in Concert, University of Texas, Austin, June 15, 1949'' (1973, Playboy Records PB 119)
*"[https://www.wnyc.org/story/king-twelve-string-guitar-wnyc-regular-through-1940s/ The King of the Twelve-String Guitar is a Regular on WNYC Through the 1940s]" Extant Lead Belly WNYC broadcasts 1940–1949.

=== Other compilations ===
* ''A Leadbelly Memorial, Vol II'' (1963, Stinson Records, SLP 19), red vinyl pressing
* ''Alabama Bound'' (1989, RCA Heritage Series), a [https://www.discogs.com/release/8123036-Leadbelly-Alabama-Bound 16 track CD] manufactured for BMG Direct Marketing
* ''Huddie Ledbetter's Best'' (1989, [[BGO Records]]), containing recordings made for [[Capitol Records]] in 1944 in California
* ''King of the 12-String Guitar'' (1991, [[Sony Records|Sony/Legacy Records]]), a collection of [[blues]] songs and prison ballads recorded in 1935 in New York City for the [[American Record Corporation]], including previously unreleased alternate takes
* ''Lead Belly Sings and Plays'' (1962, Stinson Records, SLPS 91), red vinyl pressing
* ''Private Party November 21, 1948'' (2000, Document Records), containing Lead Belly's intimate performance at a private party in late 1948 in [[Minneapolis]]
* ''Take This Hammer'', When the Sun Goes Down series, vol. 5 (2003, RCA Victor/Bluebird Jazz), CD collection of all 26 songs Lead Belly recorded for [[Victor Records]] in 1940, half of which feature the [[Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet]] (a 1968 LP released by [[RCA Victor]] included about half of these recordings)
* ''The Definitive Lead Belly'' (2008, Not Now Music), a 50-song retrospective on two CDs
* ''Leadbelly – American Folk & Blues Anthology'' (2013, Not Now Music), 75 songs on three CDs
*''[[American Epic: The Best of Lead Belly]]'' (2017, Lo-Max, [[Legacy Recordings|Sony Legacy]], [[Third Man Records|Third Man]])

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
* White, Gary; Stuart, David; Aviva, Elyn (2001). ''Music in Our World''. p.&nbsp;196. {{ISBN|0-07-027212-3}}.
* Wolfe, Charles; Lornell, Kip (1992). ''The Life and Legend of Leadbelly'' . New York City: HarperCollins Publishers. {{ISBN|0060168625}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Lead Belly}}
* [http://www.leadbelly.com/ The Official Lead Belly Website]
* [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fle10 "Ledbetter, Huddie (Leadbelly)" in the Handbook of Texas Online]
* [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p415/biography|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic]
* {{Discogs artist}}
* [http://www.folkways.si.edu/searchresults.aspx?sPhrase=lead%20belly&sType='phrase'/ Discography for Lead Belly on Folkways]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110822153915/http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/neh-preservation-project/2011/aug/19/leadbelly_and_lomax/ Leadbelly and Lomax Together at the American Music Festival on WNYC]
*[https://www.wnyc.org/story/king-twelve-string-guitar-wnyc-regular-through-1940s/ The 'King of the Twelve-String Guitar' is a WNYC Regular Through the 1940s]
* [http://www.culturalequity.org/currents/ce_currents_leadbelly.php Lead Belly And The Lomaxes: Myths and Realities] A FAQ and Timeline Lead Belly's relationship with John and Alan Lomax
* [http://louisianamusichalloffame.org/content/view/93/112/ Louisiana Music Hall of Fame Induction Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170602175146/http://louisianamusichalloffame.org/content/view/93/112/ |date=June 2, 2017}}
* [http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=558 Lead Belly: Entries{{!}}KnowLA, Encyclopedia of Louisiana] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130222154007/http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=558 |date=February 22, 2013 }}
* {{Find a Grave|6121635| Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter}}

{{Lead Belly}}
{{1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American accordionists]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American criminals]]
[[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
[[Category:African-American guitarists]]
[[Category:American acoustic guitarists]]
[[Category:American blues guitarists]]
[[Category:American blues singers]]
[[Category:American folk guitarists]]
[[Category:American folk singers]]
[[Category:American male criminals]]
[[Category:American male guitarists]]
[[Category:American multi-instrumentalists]]
[[Category:American people convicted of attempted murder]]
[[Category:American people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:American street performers]]
[[Category:Country blues musicians]]
[[Category:Criminals from Louisiana]]
[[Category:Criminals from Texas]]
[[Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Folkways Records artists]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Louisiana]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Texas]]
[[Category:Musicians from Dallas]]
[[Category:People from Mooringsport, Louisiana]]
[[Category:Prison music]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Louisiana]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Texas]]
[[Category:Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons]]
[[Category:Singers from Louisiana]]
[[Category:Songster musicians]]