1. Work Songs: Huddie Ledbetter
“Leadbelly”

2. Huddie Ledbetter (1885-1949) “Leadbelly”

3. Huddie Ledbetter - “Leadbelly” 1885? - 1949
Work Songs: began in 1600s on plantations and in prisons
call-response
advent of the phonograph

4. Huddie Ledbetter - vocal, guitar
Two harmonies each verse
Simpler than 12-bar blues

5. “Juliana Johnson” ca. 1941 (Intro. To Jazz Disc 1)
0.00 Beginning; two chords per beat
0.13 “gonna leave ya”
0.24 “done got married”
0.34 “I married Marty” all -phrases end with a short grunt where the workers pull together; spoken fill
0.43 “Marty promised”
0.52 “Goodbye Juli”
1.02 “Gonna leave ya”
1.17 fade-out, end

6. “Leadbelly” b. Mooringsport, LA, 1885
Attended “sukey jumps” and “breakdowns”
Self-taught on accordion
Age 15 worked as a field hand
Habitual pursuit of women
Many scrapes with the law
In and out of prison

7. “Leadbelly”

8. “Leadbelly” 1918 Sugar Land Penitentiary (Texas)
1932 Angola State Penitentiary (LA)
1935 worked for Lomaxs
1937, jail
1940 performed and toured with Josh White; Big Bill Broonzy and Woodie Guthrie
made many recordings

9. Huddie Ledbetter (1885-1949) “Leadbelly”
called “Leadbelly” after being in a fight where he was shot
series of scrapes with the law
prison; chain gangs; convicted for murder
became a friend of the warden at Sugar Land Penitentiary
pardoned in 1925

10. “Leadbelly” popularity began to fade during WWII
played in Paris in 1949 for 30 people
died in NYC on December 6, 1949 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
video - “Leadbelly”