The Smithsonian Folkways Collection

by Lead Belly

Overview

Born in 1888, Huddie Ledbetter was the son of a sharecropper; he was born on a Louisiana plantation and learned to play guitar after long days working on his father's farm. After he struck out on his own at the age of 16, Ledbetter's life was full of adventures, both good and bad and including a murder conviction, but while in prison he picked up the nickname Lead Belly, and after writing a handful of great songs (and learning a hundred more) that he made his own with his passionate vocal style that melded blues and folk styles and his distinctive 12-string guitar work, he was freed and became one of the most influential folk artists in American music. Lead Belly recorded literally hundreds of songs over the course of his career (including a number of archival sessions recorded for the Library of Congress), and his music would influence a striking array of artists, from Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Odetta to Van Morrison, John Fogerty, and Kurt Cobain. The Smithsonian Folkways Collection is a five-disc box set that represents the first attempt to offer a career-spanning overview of the career of a giant of American music, including 108 tracks, 16 of which see their first release on this collection. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	02/24/2015
Label:	Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
UPC:	0093074020128
Rank:	38871

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Irene (Goodnight Irene)
2. The Bourgeois Blues
3. Fannin Street (Mister Tom Hughes Brown)
4. The Midnight Special
5. John Henry
6. Black Girl (Where Did You Sleep Last Night)
7. Pick a Bale of Cotton
8. Take This Hammer
9. Cotton Fields
10. Old Riley
11. Rock Island Line
12. The Gallis Pole
13. Ha-Ha This a Way
14. Sukey Jump
15. Boll Weevil
16. Scottsboro Boys
17. Governor O.K. Allen
18. Governor Pat Neff
19. There's a Man Going Around Taking Names
20. On a Monday
21. You Can't Lose Me, Cholly
22. Keep Your Hands Off Her
23. We Shall Be Free

Disc 2

24. Alabama Bound
25. Almost Day
26. Fiddler's Dram
27. Green Corn
28. Sally Walker
29. Bring Me a Little Water, Silvy
30. Julie Ann Johnson
31. Linin' Track
32. Whoa, Back, Buck
33. Shorty George
34. Ham and Eggs
35. Moanin'
36. Out on the Western Plains
37. Noted Rider
38. Meeting at the Building
39. Good, Good, Good (Talking, Preaching)/We Shall Walk Through the Valley
40. Ain't You Glad (The Blood Done Signed My Name)
41. I'm So Glad, I Done Got Over
42. The Hindenburg Disaster
43. Ella Speed
44. Haul Away Joe
45. Old Man
46. Sweet Jenny Lee
47. Jean Harlow
48. Laura
49. Queen Mary

Disc 3

50. Good Morning Blues
51. Sail On, Little Girl
52. Easy Rider
53. Poor Howard
54. Duncan and Brady
55. How Long, How Long
56. T.B. Blues
57. Jim Crow Blues
58. Pigmeat
59. John Hardy
60. Outskirts of Town
61. 4, 5 and 9
62. In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)
63. Red Cross Store Blues
64. Diggin' My Potatoes
65. Blind Lemon
66. When a Man's a Long Way From Home
67. Alberta
68. Excerpt From "The Lonesome Train"
69. National Defense Blues
70. Hitler Song (Mr. Hitler)
71. Big Fat Woman
72. Been So Long (Bellevue Hospital Blues)

Disc 4

73. WNYC - Folk Songs of America - Lead Belly: Grey Goose/Boll Weevil/Yellow Gal/Ha-Ha This a Way/Leaving Blues/Irene (Outro)
74. WNYC - Folk Songs of America - Lead Belly and the Oleander Quartet: Almost Day/Blues in My Kitchen, Blues in My Dining Room/I Went Up on the Mountain/Good Morning Blues/Baby, Don't You Love Me No More/T.B. Blues/Irene (Outro)
75. If It Wasn't for Dicky
76. What's You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire
77. Rock Me (Hide Me in Thy Bosom)
78. Packin' Trunk Blues
79. Leaving Blues
80. How Come You Do Me Like You Do?
81. One Dime Blues
82. I'm Going to Buy You a Brand New Ford
83. Jail-House Blues
84. Shout On
85. Come and Sit Down Beside Me
86. Red River

Disc 5

87. Yes, I Was Standing in the Bottom
88. Ain't Going Down to the Well No More [Version 2]
89. Everytime I Go Out
90. Go Down, Old Hannah
91. Black Betty
92. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
93. Stewball
94. Ain't It a Shame to Go Fishin' on a Sunday
95. Relax Your Mind
96. Princess Elizabeth
97. Silver City Bound
98. The Titanic
99. House of the Rising Sun
100. It's Tight Like That
101. Diggin' My Potatoes
102. Springtime in the Rockies
103. Backwater Blues
104. Didn't Old John Cross the Water
105. Dekalb Blues
106. They Hung Him on the Cross [Version 1]
107. They Hung Him on the Cross [Version 2]
108. In the World

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Lead Belly   Primary Artist,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Accordion
Cecil Murray   Primary Artist,Vocals
Woody Guthrie   Primary Artist,Vocals,Mandolin,Guest Artist
George Hall   Primary Artist,Vocals
Howard Scott   Primary Artist,Vocals
Anne Graham   Primary Artist,Vocals,Guest Artist,Vocals
Bessie Smith   Primary Artist,Vocals,Guest Artist
Cisco Houston   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Guest Artist
The Oleander Quartet   Primary Artist,Vocals
George Boyd   Primary Artist,Vocals
Brownie McGhee   Guitar,Vocals
Willie "The Lion" Smith   Piano
Pops Foster   Bass
Sonny Terry   Harmonica
Martha Ledbetter   Vocals

Technical Credits

William Weldon   Composer
Steve Lorenz   Production Assistant
Tiny Robinson   Writer
Stephanie Smith   Archivist,Archival Assistant
Cecilia Peterson   Archival Assistant
Cecille Chen   Research
Emily Hilliard   Proof Reading,Production Assistant
Abe Greiss   Portrait Photography
Bernard Hoffman   Photography
Blair Bainbridge   Proof Reading
Blanding Sloan   Photography
Britta Anderson Loftus   Research,Proof Reading
Eric Conn   Audio Restoration,Mastering
Gene Austin   Composer
Toby Mountain   Mastering,Audio Restoration
John A. Lomax   Arranger,Composer,Engineer
Charlie Pilzer   Mastering,Audio Restoration
Victoria Spivey   Composer
Leroy Carr   Composer
Pete Seeger   Photo Editing
Pete Reiniger   Mastering,Transfers,Audio Restoration,Compilation Mastering
Hudson Whittaker   Composer
Huddie Ledbetter   Arranger,Composer
Roy Bergere   Composer
Dale Cockrell   Images
Roy Jordan   Composer
Jimmy Cox   Composer
Ronnie Simpkins   Transfers
Moses Asch   Engineer
Lemon Jefferson   Composer
Alan Lomax   Arranger,Composer,Engineer
Mike Donaldson   Transfers
Alan Yoshida   Audio Restoration,Mastering
Robert Santelli   Essay,Producer,Introduction,Compilation Producer
Mary Monseur   Production Manager
Carla Borden   Editing
Berenice Abbott   Photography
Millard Lampell   Composer
Brad McCoy   Transfers
Robert Sauer   Composer
Mary Hale Woolsey   Composer
John Reynolds   Proof Reading
Sean Killeen   Photography
Greg Adams   Archival Assistant
Dan Charette   Archival Assistant
Charles Peterson   Portrait Photography
Jean Evans   Photography
Mike Turpin   Transfers
Big Bill Broonzy   Composer
David Glasser   Mastering,Transfers,Audio Restoration
D.A. Sonneborn   Executive Producer
Jeff Place   Writer,Producer,Transfers,Compilation Producer
Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey   Composer
Malcolm Addey   Mastering,Audio Restoration
Daniel E. Sheehy   Executive Producer
Matt Walters   Mastering,Audio Restoration
Max Smith   Production Assistant
Amos Easton   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Blind Lemon Jefferson   Composer
Bessie Smith   Composer
Lead Belly   Arranger,Composer
Jack Towers   Transfers
Dr. Richard S. Blacher   Portrait Photography
Elizabeth Hambleton   Production Assistant
Emma Tainter   Research,Proof Reading
Katie Ortiz   Production Assistant
Lee Ann Sonnenstein   Mastering,Audio Restoration
Martin Alexander Krzywy   Research,Proof Reading
Michael Barnes   Photography
Miles Folley   Proof Reading
Terika Dean   Production Assistant
Tom Adams   Transfers
Wah Mong Chang   Photography
Joe Gastwirt   Mastering,Transfers,Audio Restoration
Earl Robinson   Composer
Edwin H. Morris   Composer
Walter Donaldson   Composer
Frederic Ramsey, Jr.   Engineer
Don Raye   Composer