Lead Belly

American musician
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Also known as: Huddie William Ledbetter, Leadbelly
Quick Facts
Also spelled:
Leadbelly
Byname of:
Huddie William Ledbetter
Born:
January 21, 1885?, Jeter Plantation, near Mooringsport, Louisiana, U.S.
Died:
December 6, 1949, New York, New York
Also Known As:
Huddie William Ledbetter
Leadbelly

Lead Belly (born January 21, 1885?, Jeter Plantation, near Mooringsport, Louisiana, U.S.—died December 6, 1949, New York, New York) was an American folk-blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose ability to perform a vast repertoire of songs in a variety of styles, in conjunction with his notoriously violent life, made him a legend.

Musical from childhood, Lead Belly played accordion, 6- and (more usually) 12-string guitar, bass, and harmonica. He led a wandering life, learning songs by absorbing oral tradition. For a time he worked as an itinerant musician with Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1918 he was imprisoned in Texas for murder. According to tradition, he won his early release in 1925 by singing a song for the governor of Texas when he visited the prison.

After resuming a life of drifting, in 1930 Lead Belly was convicted of attempted murder and imprisoned in the Angola, Louisiana, prison farm. There he was “discovered” by the folklorists John Lomax and Alan Lomax, who were collecting songs for the Library of Congress. A campaign spearheaded by the Lomaxes secured Lead Belly’s release in 1934, and he embarked on a concert tour of eastern colleges. Subsequently, the Lomaxes published 48 of his songs together with commentary (Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Lead Belly, 1936). Lead Belly performed and recorded extensively. His first commercial recordings were made for the American Record Corporation, which did not take advantage of his huge folk repertoire but rather encouraged him to sing blues. He settled in New York City in 1937. He struggled to make enough money, and in 1939–40 he was jailed again, this time for assault. After he was released, he briefly worked with Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and others as the Headline Singers, performed on radio, and, in 1945, appeared in a short film. In 1949, shortly before his death, he gave a concert in Paris.

USA 2006 - 78th Annual Academy Awards. Closeup of giant Oscar statue at the entrance of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, film movie hollywood
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Lead Belly died penniless, but within six months his song “Goodnight, Irene” became a million-record hit for the singing group the Weavers; along with other pieces from his repertoire, among them “The Midnight Special” and “Rock Island Line,” it became a standard.

Lead Belly’s legacy is extraordinary. His recordings reveal his mastery of a great variety of song styles and his prodigious memory; his repertory included more than 500 songs. His rhythmic guitar playing and unique vocal accentuations make his body of work both instructive and compelling. His influence on later musicians—including Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain—was immense.

Lead Belly was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame (1986) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1988). In 2015 the Smithsonian Institution’s Smithsonian Folkways record label released a five-CD box set of his recordings.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.