From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Jan 21, 2002  1:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Leadbelly
 
LEADBELLY

Born Huddie William Ledbetter, 21 January, ca. 1889, Mooringsport, Louisiana
Died 6 December 1949, New York City, NY

Blues/folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, other instruments.
Attracted to liquour and women during his teen years, he left his family's
farm to work as a gin joint entertainer, playing the piano in Shreveport
brothels by the age of 16. Prone to violence and jailed several times,
Leadbelly murdered a man in 1918, and served seven years of a 30-year
sentence. He was pardoned after composing an impassioned song for the
governor of Texas. Back in prison in 1930 for slashing a man, Leadbelly
was visited by musicologist John Lomax for whom he recorded his
signature piece "Irene" (later recorded by The Weavers as "Goodnight
Irene"). Again pardoned, Leadbelly came under Lomax's tutelage and
worked as his chauffeur. Moving to NYC in 1935, Leadbelly was embraced
by America's East Coast liberals for his leftist lyrical messages. During
this period he worked with a number of important contemporaries including
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Woody Guthrie and Josh White.
He was jailed again in 1939, on assault charges, and served a year at
Rikers Island. Recording for the labels Stinson, Capitol, and most-often,
Moses Asch's Folkway Records, Leadbelly found little commercial
success with songs such as "Mr. Tom Hughs", "Rock Island Line" and
"Midnight Special", though the latter two would be revived as skiffle hits
in the UK in the second half of the Fifties. Others, like "Cotton Fields",
"Black Betty" and "Boll Weevil" became blues standards.
Moving to Hollywood in the late Forties, Leadbelly failed to interest film-
makers, and instead performed for dwindling nightclub audiences in Los
Angeles and San Francisco. After returning to New York, he performed at
Carnegie Hall. A film biography of his life ("Leadbelly") was released in
1976. Following his death (cause: Lou Gehrig's Disease), his influence
on a generation of musicians, from Bob Dylan to Van Morrison, was
profound.

Biography: Charles K. Wolfe, The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. New York:
Harper Perennial, 1994.
CD recommendation: The CD "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
(Smithsonian/Folkways), with over 30 tracks, is a good place to start.