HUDDIE ?LEADBELLY? LEDBETTER Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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HUDDIE ?LEADBELLY? LEDBETTER
       

Musician, born near Morringsport, Louisiana, USA. A legendary singer and guitarist, he was raised near Shreveport, LA, worked on farms in Texas, and began performing in Dallas, TX as a protege of Blind Lemon Jefferson in the 1910s. (Leadbelly got his nickname because of his deep bass voice.) In 1917 he was sentenced to prison on a murder conviction; eight years later he literally sang a plea of mercy to the Texas governor and was pardoned. In 1930 he was sentenced to 10 years for wounding a group of men with a knife, and in 1934 he composed a song for the Louisiana governor.

       

With the intervention of the folklorists John and Alan Lomax, he won a reprieve in 1935. Over the next year, he travelled with John Lomax and recorded hundreds of songs that formed a cornerstone of the Library of Congress folklore archives. In 1938 he moved permanently to New York City where he recorded for Columbia Records and became a celebrated figure in literary and political circles. His best-known songs include ‘Irene, Good Night’, ‘Rock Island Line’, and ‘Midnight Special’.