Belly Full Of Blues

When you hear the word greatest musician of all time a lot of things has be be taken into consideration. One is songwriting, they can't just play a instrument well and be called the greatest musician. Another is controversy, there has gotta be mystery and suspense surrounding the musician. There's enough mystery surrounded Huddie Leadbetter to write a whole series of novels. Hes been called the king of the twelve string for his guitar playing and in regards of songwriting no one can be beat.

Leadbetter or better know as Leadbelly was not a giant man, maybe standing 6 feet tall, but he was a ox. Growing up working in the cotton feilds he didn't scare away from work. Leadbelly's first story of mystery was when he was sentence to prison in 1915 for concealing a pistol. He was sentence to a chain gang. It was bitter sweet because on the chain gangs was where Leadbelly learned most of his traditional songs. After seven years he won a pardon from Governor Pat Morris Neff by writing him a song. He got out of prison and started drifting around singing songs along with Woody Guthrie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Josh White, Pete Seeger, etc. But in 1930 he was back in jail on counts of attempted homicide. 3 years later folklorist John Lomax discovered Leadbelly in Angola Prison. There Lomax was very impressed by Leadbelly and recorded hundreds of his songs. By request Lomax gave Governor Oscar Allen a recording of Leadbelly singing his signature song Goodnight Irene, impressed with the song another pardon was on its way for Leadbelly.

After prison Leadbelly was starting to write children songs and it didn't go over very well with the public after they discovered that a black man who is an ex con was singing to their children. But still he sung many children songs such as Skip To My Lou, Ha Ha This A Way, Sally Walker,  and Polly Wee.

Again in 1939 Leadbelly was back in prison for assault. Stabbing a man during a fight. John Lomax's son Alan came to his rescue and raised money for a lawyer to get him out of jail. He succeed and started a whole new relationship between the two. Alan recorded him many times and even had Leadbelly on his show Back Where I Came From.

In 1949 Leadbelly would die from a battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was buried at the Shilo Baptist Church in Mooringsport . A life size statue of him stands tall across from the Caddo Parish Courthouse in
Shreveport. The town where Leadbelly would have been found roaming the streets singing for dimes and nickles.

The music library of Leadbelly is enormous. Songs such as Midnight Special, Goodnight Irene, Cotton Feilds, Gallows Pole, Take This hammer, House Of The Rising Sun, Rock Island Line, John Henry, Matchbox Blues, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, and so many more were covered by such bands as   The Animals, Nirvana, CCR, Led Zepplin, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Ram Jam, Van Morrison, Pete Seeger, ABBA and hundreds more. Huddie Ledbetter was considered till this day one of the most important figures in music history. He was idolized by bands that we idol today. He was feared, respected and loved. He had a hard life and that is what makes his music so great, he put every inch of his soul into what he sung and played.