The Man

Lead Belly, the King of the 12 String Guitar and father of American folk music, is one of the most important musicians in not only blues but the development of modern music. Born Huddie (pronouced “Hugh-dee”) William Ledbetter on January 20 1888 or 1889 on a plantation in Mooringsport, Louisiana, Lead Belly is the archtype of the hard drinking, hard living bluesman. Imprisoned 3 times for assault and once for murder, he was discovered and first recorded in prison and went on to become the greatest influence over the folk music and an iconic figure in blues history.

Interested in music from a young age, the Ledbetters settled across the border in Bowie County, Texas in 1903 where the young Huddie learnt piano, accordian, harmonica and mandolin. His uncle Terrel Ledbetter introduced him to the guitar and seeking an aternative to the hard work of field labour, Huddie had already gaining a reputation as a street corner musician by age 15. He travelled the area, performing in the notorious red light district of St Paul’s Bottom in Shreveport Louisiana. He became a regular on Fannin Street in Shreveport, a row of saloons, brothels, gambling dens, and dance halls, gaining exposure to a variety of musical styles. The area is now known as “Ledbetter Heights” in his honour.

He border hopped and travelled the south west from 1906, ending up in Dallas by 1908. A serious illness saw him return to his parents later that year where he married a 15 year old local girl and fathered two children. By 1910, inspired by seeing a Mexican Mariachi singer with a twelve string guitar, Huddie purchased one from a pawn shop and was back on the road, playing, drinking, partying and working as a labourer on farms and railroads when he couldn’t find a gig.

By 1912 he was in Dallas performing with his close friend and travelling companion, the blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson. He wrote his first ever song on the twelve string that year, a social commentary about the black boxer Jack Johnson being denied passage on the Titanic due to the colour of his skin. The partnership lasted 5 years, before Huddie’s hard living lifestyle caught up with him.

An arrest after a fight at a party in 1915 saw Huddie sentenced to 7 years on a chain gang for possesion of a pistol. He escaped two days after being imprisoned, and adopted the name “William Boyd” to avoid the law. For two years he worked the rail roads and occasionally played, before turning up at a relative’s house and shooting him dead. He was sentenced to 30 years in the Imperial State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Texas.

It was hard time for an imprisoned black man in the deep south in 1917. He was stabbed in the neck by a fellow prisoner, reportedly pulling the knife out of his own neck and using it to nearly kill his attacker. He aquired the name “Lead Belly” in jail due to his physical size and toughness, plus the play on words of his surname. Despite that incident, he was a model prisoner and entertained the inmates and guards with a 12 string he had smuggled in.

In 1924 he wrote and performed a song begging for a pardon from Texas Governor Pat Moris Neff, and was pardoned in 1925 after serving the minimum 7 years. On realese, he found his old friend Blind Lemon, amongst other artists like Bessie Smith and Jim Jackson, had recorded hit blues records. He lived in Sheveport for the next 5 years, but didn’t make any recordings.

1930 saw him imprisoned for 10 years in the infamous Angola State Prison Farm in Louisiana for stabbing a white man in a knife fight. In 1933 the blues and folklorists John and Alan Lomax, recording “Negro Work Songs” for the Library of Congress, discovered him in prison and recorded his first tracks, returning to record more in 1934. He was again released for good behaviour in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression, and the Lomaxes took him under their wing, employing him as a driver on their trips to various prisons and taking him over the country to new audiences.

They settled in New York in 1935, where Lead Belly’s background and string voice made an immediate impact but despite recording over 40 sides, he failed to find commercial success. His relationship with the Lomaxes broke down in 1936 and he continued to strive for success in New York. He achieved some fame – Life magazine wrote a story about him in 1937 unbelievably titled “Bad nigger makes Good Minstrel” but his folk styled tunes were less popular than the straight blues of his contemporaries, despite being popular in liberal circles.

In 1939 he stabbed another man sixteen times in a knife fight and was back in jail, but released after a year. His house in New York became a meeting place for local and travelling musicians – including future greats like Sonny Terry, Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger – and he kept recording and trying to find success. Trips to California proved fruitless, but the growing folk scene in New York after the Second World War spread his fame and influence.

His music became popular in the late ’40s and he could make a living solely off his music for the first time in his life aged in his late 50s. He played in clubs and had a regular radio broadcast by early 1949. His popularity earned him a European tour, but he fell ill in France and was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

With the tour cut short, he returned to New York where he died of the disease on December 6, 1949. The folk revival of the 1960’s saw Lead Belly’s popularity explode. His influence is clearly seen in Bob Dylan’s early recordings – the ironic delivery Dylan became famous for is styled on Lead Belly’s delivery in songs such as “Titanic” and his use of the twelve string as a feature instrument is the reason why the instrument is still popular today.

