Lyrics | Artists | Lead Belly

Lead Belly

A key figure in the history of American music, Huddie Ledbetter was one of the great voices of the folk tradition, telling stories of cotton picking, slavery and the travails of the South and leaving a lasting influence on the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain. Born on a plantation in Louisiana in 1888, he was taught guitar and accordion by his uncle at an early age, but became a social outcast when he fathered two children by the time he was 16 and set out on his own as a wandering minstrel and farm hand. Bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson became a travelling par...