Results for "Leadbelly"

Creedence Clearwater Revival: At The Royal Albert Hall

by Doug Collette
September 24, 2022

There is a decidedly celebratory air surrounding the release of Creedence Clearwater Revival's At The The Royal Albert Hall and it is a wholly deserved one. Whether or not the Travelin' Band documentary film, due to premiere on Netflix the same day as the album's release, is as frank an account of the group's history as ...

Alex Coke & Carl Michel: The Emissary

by Kyle Simpler
February 7, 2022

While much of the world was in lockdown during 2020, saxophonist Alex Coke and harpist Elaine Barber had an idea that caught on. They decided to bring their instruments out on the driveway of the Austin, Texas home they were sheltering in and play music while waiting for their groceries to be delivered. These impromptu concerts ...

Atlantic Records: More Giant Steps: An Alternative Top 20 Albums

by Chris May
July 13, 2020

Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun's Atlantic Records differs in one key respect from Prestige, Riverside, Impulse!, Strata-East and Flying Dutchman, the most prominent labels covered so far in this Building A Jazz Library series. Those labels' discographies consist almost exclusively of jazz. Atlantic had parallel interests in soul and rhythm-and-blues and, later, rock. This had consequences, as ...

Rory Gallagher: Check Shirt Wizard: Live in '77

by Doug Collette
April 6, 2020

Check Shirt Wizard: Live in 1977 is yet another in a lengthy string of posthumous archival work devoted to Irish guitarist and songwriter Rory Gallagher. Like virtually all its predecessors in both audio and video configurations, including Live at Montreux (Eagle, 2006) and Notes From San Francisco (Eagle/Legacy, 2011), this double CD set (also available as ...

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.

Pete Seeger: Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection

by Jakob Baekgaard
April 20, 2019

It is no coincidence that folk singer, songwriter and social activist Pete Seeger (1919-2014) turns up as one of the important voices on the recently released Smithsonian Folkways box set The Social Power of Music (Smithsonian Folkways, 2019). Seeger, one of the towering figures of American folk music, believed in songs as tools that could transform ...

Adam Nussbaum: The Lead Belly Project

by Maurizio Comandini
April 25, 2018

Il noto batterista Adam Nussbaum guida un bel quartetto con il saxofonista Ohad Talmor e i due chitarristi Steve Cardenas e Nate Radley in un viaggio alla riscoperta delle melodie piane e semplici di Huddie William Ledbetter, meglio noto come Leadbelly o, se vogliamo aderire alla versione preferita da Nussbaum, Lead Belly. Un viaggio profumato ovviamente ...

Super Hi-Fi: Super Hi Fi Plays Nirvana

by Chris M. Slawecki
March 22, 2017

Super Hi-Fi founder and bassist Ezra Gale established his cassette-and download-only label Very Special Recordings to give his compatriots and their fans the chance to take a chance. “The fact that cassettes are cheap to manufacture and to buy is huge, because we can take chances and just put out things we love, which we wouldn't ...

Sometimes Jazz Takes Guts

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 28, 2017

Brownout Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath II Ubiquity Records 2016 Brownout bandleader and guitarist Adrian Quesada listened to a lot of different music, including blood-curdling heavy metal monsters Black Sabbath, while growing up in South Texas. Even while creating original music more reflective of their Mexican and American funk, ...

Elisabeth Sheperd: The Signal

by Angelo Leonardi
February 26, 2015

Vi ricordate i Matt Bianco? Erano un gruppo britannico degli anni ottanta, esponenti di punta del cosiddetto “New Cool" assieme a Style Council e Working Week. Per il loro piacevole pop-jazz e le affinità con la cantante Basia Trzetrzelewska, mi sono tornati in mente ascoltando questo disco di Elisabeth Shepherd. Il confronto può ...