Lead Belly

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer

Category: Early Influence

Inducted: 1988

Inducted by: Pete Seeger


Songwriters Hall of Fame: 1970

Inducted into Rock Hall Revisited in 1993 (ranked #5 in the Influences - Pre-Rock Era category) .

Essential Albums (?)WikipediaYouTube
The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs (1941)
Negro Folk Songs (1946)
Leadbelly's Last Sessions (1953)

Essential Songs (?)WikipediaYouTube
The Midnight Special (1934)
Goodnight Irene (1936)
Cotton Fields (1940)
In The Pines (Where Did You Sleep Last Night?) (1944)
In New Orleans (1944)

Lead Belly @ Wikipedia



Comments

2 comments so far (post your own)

Huddie Leadbetter, better known as Leadbelly, endured a brutal life of imprisonment and poverty to become a unique figure in American popular music and particularly the folk scene.

He is best remembered for songs he adapted or wrote like "Goodnight, Irene", "Cotton Fields" and "Rock Island Line" and his prowess on the twelve-string guitar, but he is also an example of a singer whose background brought him into contact with the oral tradition of folk. In his sixty years, Leadbelly lived two lives. First, as a blues singer and a field worker in the South than as a folk singer and a recording artist in the North.

During the last fifteen years of his life, he acquired a new audience in the folk community, befriending other folk singers like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Much like Guthrie, Leadbelly performed at political rallies and labor unions. His high-powered vocals and his powerful guitar playing demanded attention and earned him the nickname, "The King of the Twelve-String Guitar".

While he pasted away in 1949, his guitar playing and singing influenced tons of folk and rock musicians from Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie to Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen.

Posted by Andrew on Friday, 03/1/2013 @ 12:00pm


He was AMAZING.

Posted by BulmaPunkRocker on Sunday, 07/6/2014 @ 21:12pm


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Future Rock Legends is your home for Lead Belly and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, including year of eligibility, number of nominations, induction chances, essential songs and albums, and an open discussion of their career.


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