LEADBELLY

The folk and blues guitar player Leadbelly was a solid link between folk’s traditional music and its revival of the 1940s. He introduced the blues to many in the North and his repertoire covered a broad range. Some of his best-known songs included “Midnight Special,” “Rock Island Line,” and “Good Night, Irene” which straddle folk and blues.

Huddie William Ledbetter was born on January 15, 1888, on a plantation in Mooringsport, Louisiana, but grew up in Harrison County, Texas, exposed not only to gospel and blues but to ballads, string band music, and old African-American f i e ld hollers. According to family stories, he picked up a twig when he was two years old and whittled himself a primitive flute. He learned to play the Cajun accordion and mandolin at home, and was playing dance music in a school band by the time he was 12.

By 14, Ledbetter was in demand to play at both black and white gatherings. He quit school to work in the cotton fields, and at 16 he headed off for two years in the free-wheeling Fannin Street district of Shreveport, Louisiana, playing music and chasing woman. Before he was 20, he had been to New Orleans and toured large portions of Texas. He fathered a child when he was 16 and married his first wife at 20. They moved to Dallas, where Ledbetter taught himself to play the 12-string guitar that became one of his trademarks.

DOING TIME

He also met Blind Lemon JEFFERSON and played music with him on and off for five years. Ledbetter was a proud man, and his unwillingness to back down from a fight cost him dearly. Twice he was imprisoned, once for a murder in Texas that he claimed was in self-defence, the second time for assaulting a white man in Louisiana. Legend has it that he twice sang his way out of prison. But the first time, he was pardoned by the governor of Texas only a few months before he was eligible for parole, and the second time, he was paroled rather than pardoned, although folklorists John and Alan LOMAX did deliver a request for pardon to the governor of Louisiana after they met Ledbetter at a Louisiana prison.

He acquired the nickname “Leadbelly” in prison, and that eventually became the name he was best known by. He said another prisoner gave him the name because he worked so hard it seemed he had “lead in his belly.” However, the name also suited his massive physical presence and toughness.

Time magazine characterised Leadbelly as a “badman minstrel” when he first visited New York in 1935, in a dual role as chauffeur for John Lomax and as a musical performer. Lomax made him perform in prison garb, but then was instrumental in having Leadbelly recorded for the Library of Congress. The partnership was short-lived, and Leadbelly returned alone in 1936 as an immaculately dressed artist performing a wide range of traditional music.

Huddie and Martha Ledbetter’s apartment was a gathering place for an astonishing collection of musicians who came together in New York in the 1940s. Woody GUTHRIE lived with them briefly, Pete Seeger visited, as did Burl Ives, Brownie McGhee, and others. Most of these admirers were young and looked to Leadbelly, in his early 50s, as a role model. At this time, he made recordings with the harmonica player, Sonny TERRY, and made many records of traditional songs, sometimes unaccompanied. He also made a short film in Hollywood, Three Songs by Leadbelly ’45.

His singing style was full and emotionally charged, and his 12-string guitar accompaniments were noted for their driving rhythmic force. Leadbelly died in New York on December 6, 1949, from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Earlier in the year he had toured France, becoming the first black man to make such a tour and sparking European interest in the blues.

Stan Hieronymus