1 	There's A Man Going Around Taking Names 	1:25
2 	Stewball 	2:24
3 	Keep Your Hands Off Her 	2:50
4 	Good-Good-Good (Talking, Preaching) / We Shall Walk Thru The Valley 	2:08
5 	Lining Track 	1:10
6 	Outskirts Of Town 	2:35
7 	We Shall Be Free 	2:33
8 	The Blood Done Sign My Name (Ain't You Glad) 	2:20
9 	On A Monday 	1:47
10 	Jean Harlow 	1:35
11 	Corn Bread Rough 	2:05
12 	National Defense Blues 	3:00
13 	Little Children's Blues 	2:25
14 	Fiddler's Dram 	2:27
15 	Meeting At The Building 	0:59

Huddie Ledbetter - guitar, vocals
+
Cisco Houston - mandolin (tracks: 2,6,7,14)
Sonny Terry - harmonica (tracks: 6,9)
Woody Guthrie - guitar (tracks: 2,6,7,14)

This is a precious collection of songs from the larger than life Leadbelly; what makes this sagely compiled album so interesting is that it includes both solo performed songs and others accompanied by changing combinations of the younger that looked up at him with respect and admiration, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Huston and Sonny Terry.

A troubadour and story-teller he has been recognized as one of those who could voice the Depression-era poor Folks concerns and struggles, as Woody, who hanged around a lot with him, reverencing confirms on the sleeve notes; but what made him stand-up among the rest, and not even taking into account his imposing vocal power, startling 12-string guitar technique and multi-instrumentalist abilities, was that contrary to others he had an unusual capacity to embrace many genres.

This album documents it: solitarily launching a passionately sung mean Blues, atop a killer walking riff on “National Defense Blues” or sprinkling it with single-note fill-ins and bends as his foot stomping sets the beat on “Little Children’s Blues”, on a call & response routine with Cisco Houston and Woody Guthrie , backed by mandolin and guitar on the flaming “Stewball” or with the pair plus Sonny Terry’s harmonica on the Folk-Blues tinged Gospel of “We Shall Be Free”, alone with his 12-strings on the intense Gospel of “There’s a Man…” or with Terry’s harp ornamenting the Country-Blues of “On a Monday”, talking and preaching on “Good, good, good” before picking the guitar and prophetically strum “We Shall Walk thru the Valley”, a-cappella grunting and vocalizing “Lining Track”, with concertina accompaniment in the quasi-Jig “Corn Bread Rough”, or strumming along, sing-a-long tailored hymns like “Meeting at the Building” and on several other moods and styles, it seems to me this is a very accurate portrait of Leadbelly’s enormous talent. ---comusduke, rateyourmusic.com

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01 - Good Morning Blues
02 - Whoa, Back Buck
03 - New York City
04 - Pick A Bale Of Cotton
05 - Alberta
06 - Midnight Special
07 - The Red Cross Store Blues
08 - Alabama Bound
09 - Easy Rider
10 - Rock Island Line
11 - You Can't Lose-a Me Cholly
12 - Roberta
13 - Can't You Line 'Em
14 - Stewball
15 - I'm On My Last Go-Round
16 - Gray Goose

Vocals – Huddie Leadbelly (tracks: 10, 13, 14, 16)
Vocals, Guitar – Huddie Leadbelly (tracks: 1 to 9, 12, 15)

Huddie Ledbetter, better known to the world as “Lead Belly,” survived a life that included brutalizing poverty and long stretches in prison to become an emblematic folk singer and musician. He is renowned for his songs - the best known of which include “Rock Island Line,” “Goodnight, Irene,” “The Midnight Special” and “Cotton Fields” - as well as his prowess on the 12-string guitar. In his sixty-plus years, he essentially lived two distinctly different lives: first, as a field worker, blues singer, rambling man and prisoner in the rural South; second, as a city-dwelling folksinger, performer and recording artist in the urban North. It was, however, not until shortly after Lead Belly’s death that a broader public came to know his songs and the mythic outline of his life.

Born circa 1885 in rural northwest Louisiana, Lead Belly rambled across the Deep South from the age of 16. While working in the fields, he absorbed a vast repertoire of songs and styles. He mastered primordial blues, spirituals, reels, cowboy songs, folk ballads and prison hollers. In 1917, Lead Belly served as Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “lead boy” - i.e., his guide, companion and protégé - on the streets of Dallas. A man possessed with a hot temper and enormous strength, Lead Belly spent his share of time in Southern prisons. Convicted on charges of murder (1917) and attempted murder (1930), Lead Belly literally sang his way to freedom, receiving pardons from the governors of Texas and Louisiana. The second of his releases was largely obtained through the intervention of John and Alan Lomax, who first heard Lead Belly at Angola State Prison while recording indigenous Southern musicians for the Library of Congress.

Lead Belly subsequently moved to New York, where he worked as a chauffeur (for John Lomax) and occasional performer. During the last 15 years of his life, he found an appreciative new audience in the leftist folk community, befriending the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Much like Guthrie, he performed for political rallies and labor unions in his later years. His keening, high-pitched vocals and powerful, percussive guitar playing commanded attention, and he became known as “the King of the Twelve-String Guitar.” Lead Belly recorded for a variety of labels, including Folkways, and performed tirelessly, though still subsisting in relative poverty, until his death in 1949 of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Ironically, the Weavers sold 2 million copies of their recording of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene” shortly after his death. “It’s one more case of black music being made famous by white people,” Pete Seeger, one of the Weavers, said in 1988, the year of Lead Belly’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “It’s a pure tragedy he didn’t live another six months, because all his dreams as a performer would have come true.” --- rockhall.com

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1. Good Morning Blues
2. Packin’ Trunk
3. New York City
4. My Baby Quit Me
5. Roberta Pt 1		play
6. Fort Worth And Dallas Blues
7. TB Woman Blues
8. John Hardy
9. The Red Cross Store Blues
10. Death Letter Blues Pt 1
11. I’m On My Last Go Round
12. The Borgeois Blues
13. Easy Rider
14. Four Day Worry Blues
15. Ox Drivin’ Blues
16. I’m Sorry Mama
17. Irene Goodnight		play

Concertina – Leadbelly
Guitar – Leadbelly
Vocals – Leadbelly, The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet

Leadbelly is a folk musician by association not art. He was a bluesman, pure and simple: a howler, an astonishingly prolific composer, and a murderously driving guitar slinger. His catalogue is immense, and though the complete Folkways Leadbelly Legacy series is probably the best way to get a picture of his importance, this single disc of early 1930s field recordings, made shortly after Leadbelly left prison, has some crucial tracks and rare, alternate takes like "Packin' Truck Blues," "Roberta 1 & 2," "You Don't Know My Mind," and "Pigmeat." ---Roy Francis Kasten

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1 Fannin street	2:50
2 I've Got a Pretty Flower			
3 Easy Rider			
4 Bull Cow 4:03	 
5 De Kalb Blues	3:03	 
6 New York City 3:42	
7 Mother's Blues (Little Children Blues)			
8 Tell Me Baby			
9 Sweet Mary			
10 Bourgeois Blues	5:35	 
11 My Friend Blind Lemon		
12 Good Morning Blues 2:25	
13 Gallis Pole 3:09
14 Outskirts Of Town		
15 Grasshoppers In My Pillow2:48		
16 Scottsboro Blues			
17 Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On 5:30
18 Don't You Love Your Daddy No More			
19 Where Did You Sleep Last Night? 3:03	
20 How Long 2:13
21 Looky Looky Yonder 3:05	

Twelve-String Guitar – Leadbelly
Vocals – Leadbelly

The sound on this 16-track Leadbelly collection is clear and uncluttered, and it sounds like a live concert recording, or perhaps a live-in-the-studio radio recording, or maybe even several Alan Lomax tracks from the early- to mid-1940s run through VAP (Virtual Ambience Processing). At any rate, the sound is great, and the versions of "Irene," "Roberta," and "Little Sally Walker" found here are particularly delightful. There is a second guitar on some of the tracks, and piano is also featured. ---Steve Leggett, allmusic.com

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CD01:

01-Grasshoper In My Pillow 2:48
02-Tight Like That 3:11
03-C-C- Rider 2:59
04-Well You Know I Had To Do It 2:55
05-Alberta 3:08
06-Sweet Mary Blues 2:57
07-New Orleans 3:15
08-New York City 3:03
09-Baby, Don’t You Love Me No More? 2:54
10-Thirty Days In The Work House 2:33
11-You Cain’ Loose-A-Me-Cholly 2:59
12-Midnight Special 2:04
13-I’m Leavin’ On The Midnight Train 4:18
14-Fannin’ Street 3:27
15-Goodnight Irene 1:54
16-Pick A Bale Of Cotton 1:45
17-Black Girl 2:10
18-Turn Yo’ Radio On 2:18
19-Children’s Blues 2:28
20-John Henry 4:02
21-Corn Bread Rough 2:08
22-can’t You Line ‘Em 2:56
23-Ella Speed 2:45
24-Tell Me Baby 2:57
25-Go Down, Old Hannah 4:59

CD02:

01-Somebody’s Digging My Potatoes 84:00
02-Dancing With tears In My heart 2-46
03-Salty Dog 3:029
04-Whoa back Up 2:12
05-Sukey jump 1:07
06-How Long 4:33
07-Eagle Rock Rag 2:47
08-Laura 1:41
09-Big Fat Woman 1:11
10-My Friend Blind Lemon 3:06
11-Easy My Tom 2:04
12-New black Snake 3:12
13-Matchbox Blues 3:03
14-Death Letter Blues 1 3:00
15-Death Letter Blues 2 3:00
16-Bourgeois Blues 5:37
17-We’re In The same Boat, brother 2:20
18-Jean Harlow 2:28
19-Howard Hughes 3:02
20-Cow Cow Yickety, Yickety, Yea 1:33
21-When I Was A Cowboy 2:15
22-TB Blues 3:09
23-Alabama Bound 3:06
24-Shout On 2:11
25-He Never Said A Mumbling Word 2:50

CD03:

01-It Was Early One Morning 2:26
02-Good Morning Blues 2:54
03-Tom Hughes Town 3:04
04-Bull Cow 2:44
05-Looky Looky Yonder 2:59
06-The Blood Done Sign My Name 2:20
07-Tell Me Baby, What Was Wrong With You 3:17
08-Birmingham Jail Down In The Valley 1:50
09-Red Cross Store Blues 3:07
10-Sail On, Little Girl, sail On 3:16
11-Roberta 2:59
12-Jim Crow Blues 2:26
13-Gray Goose 1:57
14-I’m On My Last Go-Round 3:13
15-Stewball 2:25
16-Spring Time In The Rockies 3:04
17-Ain’t Going Down To The Well No More 1:07
18-Take This Hammer 2:16
19-Rock Island Line 2:37
20-Midnight Special 3:05
21-Sylvie 1:00
22-I’ll Be Down On The Last Bread Wagon 3:21
23-Chinatown 1:08
24-I’M Alone because I Love You 2:54
25-Leaving blues 3:35

Although he has often been labeled a blues artist, Leadbelly had a much wider palette than that, and routinely sang spirituals, work songs, folk ballads, and children's pieces, and he had an amazing affinity for material that would later find its way into the pop world. Songs like "Goodnight Irene," "Midnight Special," "Gallows Pole," "Rock Island Line," "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," and "Black Betty," whether he actually wrote them or simply adapted them (which is probably the case), have all had an enduring musical impact, to say nothing of his driving 12-string guitar style, which wasn't exactly pretty but sure was effective. This three-disc set from Britain's Catfish Records is a wonderful introduction to Leadbelly's legacy. It doesn't include his later Folkways recordings, but does have a wide sampling of his ARC tracks and several live cuts from various concerts along with multiple takes of "Midnight Special" and "Rock Island Line" plus fine performances of "Grasshopper in My Pillow," "Alberta," "Fannin' Street," "Bourgeois Blues," and "Ain't Going Down to the Well No More." The liner notes are more artistic than revealing and there is virtually no information about when and where the various tracks were recorded, but the music is the thing, and there is simply no better mid-price set of Leadbelly currently on the market. --- Steve Leggett, allmusic.com

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1. Goodnight, Irene
2. Grasshoppers in My Pillow
3. Eagle Rocks
4. Rock Island Line
5. Ella Speed
6. Backwater Blues
7. Take This Hammer
8. Tell Me, Baby
9. Eacle Rock Rag
10. Western Plain
11. Sweet Mary Blues
12. On a Christmas Day

Piano – Leadbelly 
Twelve-String Guitar – Leadbelly
Written-By – Traditional 
Zither – Paul Mason Howard 

Huddie William Ledbetter (January 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an American folk musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced.

He is best known as Leadbelly or Lead Belly. Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly," he himself spelled it "Lead Belly." This is also the usage on his tombstone as well as of the Lead Belly Foundation.

Although he most commonly played the twelve string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, concertina, and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad "John Hardy", he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar. In other recordings he just sings while clapping his hands or stomping his foot. The topics of Lead Belly's music covered a wide range of subjects, including gospel songs; blues songs about women, liquor and racism; and folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding and dancing. He also wrote songs concerning the newsmakers of the day, such as President Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, the Scottsboro Boys, and Howard Hughes. ---amazon.com

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1	Boll Weevil See All 24			
2	I'm Goin' Mother			
3	Go Down, Ol' Hannah See All 15			
4	Prison Holler			                 play
5	Take a Whiff on Me, (Baby) See All 16			
6	Goodnight Irene See All 63			
7	Jail-House Blues See All 2			
8	Old Reilly			
9	Ox Driver's Song (Whoa, Back, Back!)			
10	Julie Ann Johnson See All 29			
11	Governor O.K. Allen See All 3			
12	Frankie And Albert See All 17			
13	St. Louis Blues			
14	We're in the Same Boat, Brother See All 10		play	
15	Salt Lake City (New York City)			
16	Irene (Good Night, Irene)

Solo performer: Leadbelly (vocals, guitar).

Recorded at the BBC Studios, New York, New York and in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1938 & 1946.

The bridging alluded to in the title refers to the brining together of two separate recordings, one from 1938 and the other from 1946. The dozen tracks that make up the former record were studio recordings, while the five that make up the later were recorded in front of a live audience in Salt Lake City.

Ballads and blues mingle with ease to offer a broad and compelling portrait of Leadbelly. This collection refutes the school of thought that believes that Leadbelly's best recordings were live ones, as he fully invests himself in each studio cut. His powerful voice and simply articulated guitar accompaniment bear a kind of poetic grace. There's never a wasted note or breath as he rolls headlong forward, powered by the emotional core of the songs. So completely has Leadbelly's music become a part of American culture that his sound and songs can be heard in nearly all folk and blues artists who have followed, even if they're not consciously aware of it.

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CD1 
01 - Leadbelly - Good Morning Blues 
02 - Leadbelly - If It Wasn't For Dicky 
03 - Leadbelly - Leavin' In The Morning 
04 - Leadbelly - Uncle Sam Says 
05 - Leadbelly - Hitler Song 
06 - Leadbelly - Laura 
07 - Leadbelly - Bring A Little Water, Sylvie 
08 - Leadbelly - Jim Crow Blues 
09 - Leadbelly - Big Fat Woman 
10 - Leadbelly - Black Girl 
11 - Leadbelly - The Blood Done Signed My Name 
12 - Leadbelly - I've A Pretty Flowers 
13 - Leadbelly - Blind Lemon (Memorial Record) 
14 - Leadbelly - Leadbelly's Dance 
15 - Leadbelly - Frankie & Albert - Part 1 
16 - Leadbelly - Frankie & Albert - Part 2 
17 - Leadbelly - In The Evenin' When The Sun Goes Down 
18 - Leadbelly - Corn Bread Rough 
19 - Leadbelly - National Defence 
20 - Leadbelly - Easy Rider 
21 - Leadbelly - New York City 
22 - Leadbelly - Little Sally Walker 
23 - Leadbelly - Goodnight, Irene 
24 - Leadbelly - Scottsboro Boys 
25 - Leadbelly - I'm On My Last Go-Round 
26 - Leadbelly - Whoa Back, Buck 
27 - Leadbelly - I'm Alone Because I Love You 
28 - Leadbelly - It's Tight Like That 
29 - Leadbelly - Well You Know I Had To Do It 

CD2 
01 - Leadbelly - Rock Island Line 
02 - Leadbelly - Roberta 
03 - Leadbelly - House Of The Rising Sun 
04 - Leadbelly - Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out 
05 - Leadbelly - Fannin' Street 
06 - Leadbelly - Yellow Gal 
07 - Leadbelly - C.C - Leadbelly - Rider 
08 - Leadbelly - Alabama Bound 
09 - Leadbelly - Sweet Mary 
10 - Leadbelly - Going Back To Mary 
11 - Leadbelly - New Orleans 
12 - Leadbelly - Ha, Ha, This-A-Way 
13 - Leadbelly - Daddy, I'm Coming Back To You 
14 - Leadbelly - Pick A Bale Of Cotton 
15 - Leadbelly - Midnight Special 
16 - Leadbelly - Sukey Jump 
17 - Leadbelly - How Long 
18 - Leadbelly - Leaving Blues 
19 - Leadbelly - T.B - Leadbelly - Blues 
20 - Leadbelly - Red Cross Store 
21 - Leadbelly - Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On 
22 - Leadbelly - Bull Cow 
23 - Leadbelly - Alberta 
24 - Leadbelly - Digging My Potatoes 
25 - Leadbelly - You Can't Lose Me Cholly 
26 - Leadbelly - Grey Goose 

CD3 
01 - Leadbelly - Cow Cow Yicky Yea/ Out On The Western Plain 
02 - Leadbelly - Noted Rider/ Big Fat Woman/Borrow Love & Go 
03 - Leadbelly - John Hardy 
04 - Leadbelly - Meeting At The Building/Talking Preaching/We Shall Walk Through The Valley 
05 - Leadbelly - John Henry 
06 - Leadbelly - Go Down Old Hannah 
07 - Leadbelly - Grasshoppers In My Pillow 
08 - Leadbelly - Tell Me Baby What Was Wrong With You 
09 - Leadbelly - Don't You Love Your Daddy No More 
10 - Leadbelly - Stew Ball 
11 - Leadbelly - Mothers Blues (Little Children Blues) 
12 - Leadbelly - Salty Dog 
13 - Leadbelly - Titanic (Fare Thee Well) 
14 - Leadbelly - Boll Weevil 
15 - Leadbelly - Take This Hammer 
16 - Leadbelly - Can't You Line 'Em 
17 - Leadbelly - Ain't Going Down To The Well No More 
18 - Leadbelly - Ain't You Glad 
19 - Leadbelly - Shout On (Honey I'm All Out & Down) 
20 - Leadbelly - Birmingham Jail (Down In The Valley) 
21 - Leadbelly - Bye & Bye When The Morning Comes 
22 - Leadbelly - Po Howard 
23 - Leadbelly - Matchbox Blues 
24 - Leadbelly - Pigmeat 
25 - Leadbelly - Green Corn 
26 - Leadbelly - Backwater Blues 
27 - Leadbelly - The Last 'Leaving Blues'

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of Leadbelly’s death this compilation contains many rare and previoulsy unheard Leadbelly performances as well as classic songs that influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Nirvana.

Huddie ‘Leadbelly ’ Ledbetter was born in 1888 in Louisiana and life was hard from the off. By the time he was 27 he found himself in jail and from then on until 1933, when he was discovered by musicologists John and Alan Lomax, he was in and out of jail for various crimes including murder. On this release we hear the many facets of Leadbelly. He plays piano, accordion, dances, talks of his life and, of course, displays his masterful talents on his beloved 12-string all accompanied by that magisterial voice.

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1. Pick A Bale Of Cotton - 3:03
2. Whoa, Back Buck - 3:08
3. Midnight Special - 3:06
4. Alabama Bound - 3:05
5. Good Morning Blues - 2:54
6. The Red Cross Store Blues - 3:08
7. Alberta - 3:12
8. You Can't Lose-A Me Cholly - 3:06
9. Gray Goose - 3:04
10. Stewball - 3:02
11. Can't You Line 'Em - 2:57
12. Rock Island Line - 2:39
13. Easy Rider - 3:12
14. New York City - 3:03
15. Roberta - 3:03
16. I'm On My Last Go-Round - 3:11

Guitar – Leadbelly 
Vocals – Henry Owens (tracks: 1 to 4, 9 to 12),
  Leadbelly, Arlandus Wilson (tracks: 1 to 4 9 to 12),
   William Langford (tracks: 1 to 4, 9 to 12),
    Willie Johnson (tracks: 1 to 4, 9 to 12) 

In its time, this was a fine little collection, containing 16 of the 26 sides that Leadbelly recorded for RCA's Bluebird label during June of 1940, eight of which feature the singer/guitarist working with the gospel group the Golden Gate Quartet. Not all of those link-ups work, as Leadbelly was a pretty substantial performing personality and didn't need the company, and the Golden Gate Quartet members don't always sound comfortable doing a brand of music that is more raw and earthy than the gospel-oriented songs they were accustomed to recording. Overall, however, these commercial recordings were among the best of Leadbelly's career and are worth tracking down. ---Bruce Eder, AllMusic Review

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1 Good Night Irene
2 T.B. Blues
3 Man Going Around Taking Names
4 Rock Island Line
5 How Long
6 Goodmorning Blues
7 John Henry
8 Pig Meat
9 On a Monday
10 Ain't You Glad
11 Old Riley
12 See See Rider
13 Meeting at the Building
14 Talking, Preaching
15 We Shall Walk Through the Valley
16 Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea
17 Out in the Western Plains
18 Fiddler's Dream
19 Yellow Girl
20 Green Corn
21 Noted Rider
22 Big Fat Woman
23 Burrow Love and Go
24 Bring Me Little Water Silvy
25 Julie Ann Johnson
26 Line 'Em
27 Whoe Back, Buck
28 John Hardy

Leadbelly (vocals, guitar).

Leadbelly originally recorded these 28 sides for Moses Asch's Folkways label, but when Folkways was placed in bankruptcy, they were released by Herbert Harris' Stinson Records instead (Harris had been a former partner of Asch in an earlier label enterprise called Asch-Stinson Records). Now, of course, the masters of these songs reside with the Smithsonian Folkways group, which has also issued these tracks in its legacy series. It's all vintage Leadbelly, and includes his signature recordings of "Goodnight Irene," "Rock Island Line," and "Bring Me a Little Water, Silvy," along with an interesting accordion-accompanied version of the outlaw ballad "John Hardy." ---Steve Leggett, allmusic.com

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