Co-produced by Jeff Place and Bob Santelli and released as part of the Lead Belly 125th year celebration, which includes a GRAMMY museum exhibition, Smithsonian this release contains 5 CDs, 108 tracks, 140 page book. 16 previously unreleased tracks. Release Date: February 10 Companion to GRAMMY-winning Woody at 100 box set (2012) Co-produced by Jeff Place and Bob Santelli Released as part of Lead Belly’s 125th year celebration, which includes GRAMMY museum exhibition, Smithsonian Channel Documentary Film, and other special events to be announced. Lead Belly is ‘the hard name of a harder man,’ said Woody Guthrie of his friend and fellow American music icon who was born Huddie Ledbetter (c. 1888-1949). From the swamplands of Louisiana, the prisons of Texas, and the streets of New York City, Lead Belly and his music became cornerstones of American folk music and touchstones of African American cultural legacy. With his 12-string Stella guitar, he sang out a cornucopia of songs that included his classics ‘The Midnight Special,’ ‘Irene,’ ‘Bourgeois Blues,’ and many more, which in turn have been covered by musical notables such as the Beach Boys, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison, Nirvana, Odetta, Little Richard, Pete Seeger, Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits. Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection brings us the story of the man as well as the musician.
CD 1
Irene (Goodnight Irene) – Lead Belly 1:53
The Bourgeois Blues – Lead Belly 2:18
Fannin Street (Mister Tom Hughes Town) – Lead Belly 3:30
The Midnight Special – Lead Belly 2:03
John Henry – Lead Belly 3:10
Black Girl (Where Did You Sleep Last Night) – Lead Belly 2:07
Pick a Bale of Cotton – Lead Belly 1:30
Ake This Hammer – Lead Belly 2:15
Cotton Fields – Lead Belly 2:06
Old Riley – Lead Belly 1:58
Rock Island Line – Lead Belly 2:02
The Gallis Pole – Lead Belly 2:45
Ha-Ha This a Way – Lead Belly 1:34
Sukey Jump – Lead Belly 1:04
Boll Weevil – Lead Belly 3:07
Scottsboro Boys – Lead Belly 4:32
Governor O.K. Allen – Lead Belly 2:37
Governor Pat Neff – Lead Belly 3:40
There’s a Man Going Around Taking Names – Lead Belly 1:24
On a Monday – Lead Belly 1:47
You Can’t Lose Me, Cholly – Lead Belly 2:37
Keep Your Hands Off Her – Lead Belly 2:51
We Shall Be Free (With Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston) – Lead Belly with Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston 2:34
CD 2
Alabama Bound – Lead Belly 2:17
Almost Day – Lead Belly 1:05
Fiddler’s Dram – Lead Belly 2:28
Green Corn – Lead Belly 1:15
Sally Walker – Lead Belly 2:40
Bring Me a Little Water, Silvy – Lead Belly 0:48
Julie Ann Johnson – Lead Belly 0:41
Linin’ Track – Lead Belly 1:11
Whoa, Back, Buck – Lead Belly 2:09
Shorty George – Lead Belly 1:28
Ham and Eggs – Lead Belly 1:42
Moanin’ – Lead Belly 1:00
Out on the Western Plains – Lead Belly 1:31
Noted Rider – Lead Belly 2:50
Meeting at the Building – Lead Belly 0:59
Good, Good, Good (Talking, Preaching) / We Shall Walk Through the Valley – Lead Belly 2:11
Ain’t You Glad (The Blood Done Signed My Name) – Lead Belly 2:19
I’m So Glad, I Done Got Over – Lead Belly 1:21
The Hindenburg Disaster – Lead Belly 3:22
Ella Speed – Lead Belly 5:48
Haul Away Joe – Lead Belly 2:48
Old Man – Lead Belly 2:35
Sweet Jenny Lee – Lead Belly 1:51
Jean Harlow – Lead Belly 1:40
Laura – Lead Belly 1:41
Queen Mary – Lead Belly 4:46
CD 3
Good Morning Blues – Lead Belly 2:23
Sail on, Little Girl – Lead Belly 3:14
Easy Rider – Lead Belly 2:51
Poor Howard – Lead Belly 1:36
Duncan and Brady – Lead Belly 4:06
How Long, How Long – Lead Belly 2:13
T.B. Blues – Lead Belly 3:43
Jim Crow Blues – Lead Belly 3:30
Pigmeat – Lead Belly 2:33
John Hardy – Lead Belly 2:43
Outskirts of Town – Lead Belly 2:40
4, 5, and 9 – Lead Belly 2:20
In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down) – Lead Belly 3:29
Red Cross Store Blues – Lead Belly 3:09
Diggin’ My Potatoes – Lead Belly 2:34
Blind Lemon – Lead Belly 1:39
When a Man’s a Long Way from Home – Lead Belly 2:57
Alberta – Lead Belly 3:11
Excerpt from “The Lonesome Train” – Lead Belly 3:11
National Defense Blues – Lead Belly 3:13
Hitler Song (MR. Hitler) – Lead Belly 4:31
Big Fat Woman – Lead Belly 1:10
Been So Long (Bellevue Hospital Blues) – Lead Belly 2:44
CD 4
WNYC- Folk Songs of America [Grey Goose; Boll Weevil; Yellow Gal; Ha-Ha This a Way; Leaving Blues; Irene (Outro)] – Lead Belly 14:42
WNYC- Folk Songs of America [Almost Day; Blues in My Kitchen, Blues in My Dining Room; I Went Up on the Mountain; Good Morning Blues; Baby, Don’t You Love Me No More; T.B. Blues; Irene (Outro)] – Lead Belly and the Oleander Quartet 14:45
If It Wasn’t for Dicky – Lead Belly 2:15
What’s You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire (With Anne Graham) – Lead Belly with Anne Graham 2:12
Rock Me (Hide Me in Thy Bosom) (With Anne Graham) – Lead Belly with Anne Graham 2:19
Packin’ Trunk Blues – Lead Belly 2:35
Leaving Blues – Lead Belly 2:58
How Come You Do Me Like You Do? – Lead Belly 3:26
One Dime Blues – Lead Belly 2:25
I’m Going to Buy You a Brand New Ford – Lead Belly 1:40
Jail-House Blues – Lead Belly 1:13
Shout on – Lead Belly 2:09
Come and Sit Down Beside Me – Lead Belly 1:02
Red River – Lead Belly 2:14
CD 5 – LAST SESSIONS
Yes, I Was Standing in the Bottom – Lead Belly 1:41
Ain’t Going Down to the Well No More (Version 2) – Lead Belly 1:23
Everytime I Go Out – Lead Belly 1:25
Go Down, Old Hannah – Lead Belly 4:58
Black Betty – Lead Belly 1:53
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out (With Bessie Smith) – Lead Belly with Bessie Smith 3:42
Stewball – Lead Belly 2:34
Ain’t It a Shame to Go Fishin’ on a Sunday – Lead Belly 1:22
Relax Your Mind – Lead Belly 4:05
Princess Elizabeth – Lead Belly 3:33
Silver City Bound – Lead Belly 6:01
The Titanic – Lead Belly 5:11
House of the Rising Sun – Lead Belly 2:24
It’s Tight Like That – Lead Belly 3:09
Diggin’ My Potatoes – Lead Belly 3:57
Springtime in the Rockies – Lead Belly 3:02
Backwater Blues – Lead Belly 3:23
Didn’t Old John Cross the Water – Lead Belly 1:56
De Kalb Blues – Lead Belly 3:51
They Hung Him on the Cross (Version 1) – Lead Belly 2:26
They Hung Him on the Cross (Version 2) – Lead Belly 2:49
In the World – Lead Belly 2:02