Search - Leadbelly :: Bridging Lead Belly

Bridging Lead Belly is notable primarily for its first 12 tracks, which were recorded in 1938 for the British Broadcasting Corporation and never released in America. Included along with basic blues and prison hollers are such favorites as the allegorical "Boll Weevil," the unabashedly hedonistic "Take a Whiff On Me," and the sing-along standard "Good Night, Irene." On a couple of songs, Leadbelly does a bit of yodeling, indicative of his fondness for cowboy ballads. The BBC recordings reveal that he was aiming his songs beyond the Southern juke-joint circuit long before he traveled north and became a folk hero in the 1940s. The early tracks are "bridged" by five tracks recorded in 1946 at a living room concert in Salt Lake City, Utah. They're so poorly recorded that they add little to Leadbelly's artistic legacy. --Rick Mitchell