Leadbelly

Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, rose from penitentiary prisoner to beloved folk troubadour in the '30s, when his influence spread far and wide, most notably to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry, and Cisco Houston. It was remarkable enough that a black man achieved such widespread popular acclaim at a time when crossover was a near-nonexistent phenomenon. His songs are even more...