The focus of this Backroads & Banjos is the highly influential Leadbelly, born Huddie Ledbetter, who’s contribution to American roots music has left an indelible mark on the country’s musical tradition. While traveling through the South in 1930, folklorist and field recorder Alan Lomax came across Leadbelly who was serving time in a Louisiana prison and exposed his talent through several recordings put out of Moe Asch’s Folkways label. Leadbelly’s exposure to both black and white strains of music throughout his life allowed him to fuse the many traditions of the American South together into a fantastic volume of work that was easily relatable to people of various backgrounds.

Backroads & Banjos - Leadbelly