Results for "Huddie Ledbetter"

Rory Gallagher: I Wonder Who

by Ian Patterson
February 28, 2024

The blues was always close to Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher's heart. He covered tunes by Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Melvin Jackson, Otis Rush, Blind Boy Fuller, Rosco Gordon, Bo Carter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Son House. He also recorded with Muddy Waters, Albert King and Albert Collins. This Muddy Waters song from the million-selling live ...

Lead Belly

Born: January 20, 1888

More than any other black folk-blues artist of his time Leadbelly helped expose his race's vast musical riches to white America, and, in the process, helped preserve a folk legacy that has become a significant part of the nation's musical treasury. He was not a blues singer in the traditional sense; he also sang spirituals, pop, field and prison hollers, cowboy and childrens songs, dance tunes and folk ballads, and of course his own topical compositions. It has been said his repertoire was at least 500 songs.

He never saw any commercial success during his lifetime. Not until after his death did a broader public come to know his songs and the amazing story of his life. Huddie William Ledbetter was born on January 29, 1889 on the Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana. He was the only child of sharecropper parents Wesley and Sally. Huddie and his parents moved to Leigh, Texas when he was five and it was there that he became interested in music, encouraged by his uncle Terrell who bought Huddie his first musical instrument, an accordion.