Lead Belly News

Lead Belly Folk & Blues Festival 2009

2010-05-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Midnight Special Tribute Event

2009-07-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you who follow the Lead Belly Foundation's twitter page/this blog, you know that we produced a Lead Belly themed event on July 11 in Seattle at Lo Fi Gallery. It featured live music by the Jelly Rollers, as well as stencils by Jonathan "Wakuda" Fisher and exclusive photos of Lead Belly from the archive. Above is a picture of one of the beautiful stencils.

We feel the event was a great success, and we look forward to continued events in Seattle and around the US celebrating Lead Belly's life and legacy!

A Very Original Cover of Midnight Special by the Creedence Clearwater Revival

2009-07-21T17:23:00.001-07:00

One Blogger Shares a Dream About Lead Belly

2009-07-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

Click the title to go the blog.

Talking to Alvin Singh

2009-07-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

We took some time to sit down with Alvin Singh, Lead Belly's great nephew. He shared with us a wonderful story about Lead Belly that he heard as he traveled around the country to shoot the Lead Belly documentary, coming out this fall (the link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X9svGYLXwA). Please take a few minutes and hear how Lead Belly touched one person's life.

HCTLG Feat Keith Harkin - Leadbelly

2009-06-25T12:27:00.001-07:00

HCTLG Feat Keith Harkin - Leadbelly

Shared via AddThis

This is a link to Keith Harkin playing his song entitled "Lead Belly."

The Man in Black and The Rock Island Line

2009-06-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

"The Rock Island Line" is a song written by Lead Belly in the 1930s. It is about the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad. The song was originally sang a Capella. Here is a great clip of a cover by Johnny Cash. The evolution of the song is evident through the big band arrangement.

Paul McCartney Playing "The Midnight Special" -- A Classic

2009-06-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Billy Bragg redefines Lead Belly's Classic "Bourgeois Blues".

2009-06-22T16:14:00.001-07:00

Lead Belly originally wrote one of his most famous songs after encountering racism in Washington D.C. His experience is expressed in the song which later became a Library of congress recording. In 2006, England's "folk-punk-poet-bard" Billy Bragg decided, after dissaproval with the current U.S. Government under the George W. Bush Administration, to put his own spin to the song. "Bush War Blues" exhibits the heavy influence of Lead Belly and allows the classic song to remain timeless.
A link to the song can be found here: Billy Bragg "Bush War Blues"
-Jake Kennelly, The Lead Belly Foundation

Kurt Cobain and Mark Lanegan Sing Lead Belly

2009-06-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

Lead Belly Blues Festival video Part 1 of 4

2009-06-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

NW Folklife Festival Tribute To Lead Belly 2009

2009-06-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

This year the Northwest Folklife Festival in conjuction with the Lead Belly Foundation hosted a Tribute to Lead Belly concert in Seattle, WA on Memorial Day.

The festival was a sold out audience and many people could not get in due to a long line outside the concert's venue. Alvin Singh hosted the event and spoke about his work as curator for the Lead Belly Archives. " I think this concert was a great introduction to the many things to come in the Seattle area" said Singh. " My great uncle would have been proud to know so many fans turned out to hear his music even 60 years after his passing" Singh later explained.

A photo slideshow was presented and the audience even got a chance to watch Lead Belly perform in one of the three rare video footage's of him singing. The bands featured were from all different genres of music from Hawaiian blues, folk, rock and a jazz band that sang the final song once sung by Lead Belly before he closed his performances "Goodnight Irene".

www.Leadbelly.org

Lead Belly Blues Festival Article

2009-05-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Shreveport Times newspaper wrote a great article on the 1st annual Lead Belly Blues Festival on May 9th.

The article is written by longtime Lead Belly fan and journalist John Andrew Prime who has written extensively on the life and legacy of Huddie Ledbetter.

Here is his article:
Blues Festival Honors Music Icon

Lead Belly - Grey Goose

2009-04-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

JOan Baez sings House if the rising sun

2009-04-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

www.Leadbelly.org

Lead Belly Blues & Folk Festival 2009

2009-03-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

The Lead Belly Blues & Folk Festival was featured recently on Kijiji website. Check here to see the post.

May 9. 2009

Shreveport, LA

Lead Belly - Easy Rider

2009-02-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

www.leadbellybluesfestival.com

Lead Belly Blues & Folk Festival

2009-02-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

The Lead Belly Blues & Folk Festival is coming on May 9th at Shreveport, LA the birthplace of the "King of the 12-string Guitar".

This is the first annual folk & blues festival hosted by the city of Shreveport and Lead Belly's family relatives. The third largest city in Louisiana Shreveport is separated from Bossier City by the Red River. This music extravaganza will be an event you do not want to miss so get your ticket at Lead Belly Folk & Blue Festival.

Roots of Blues - Lead Belly

2009-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

Lead Belly Blues Festival GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!!

LEAD BELLY:LIFE IN PICTURES COMMERCIAL

2008-11-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

Harry Belafonte and Lead Belly Archives Interview

2008-11-21T11:35:00.001-08:00

Recently the Lead Belly Archives and Filmhouse Inc. sat down with the internationally known Harry Belafonte who spoke about Lead Belly's influence on his performing career. The interview was the very next morning after the historic Presidential election night when Barack Obama accepted his victory as the newly President-elect of the United States of America.

Mr. Belafonte has many titles and he enjoys all of them including singer, actor, activist and musicologist. He spoke with Alvin Singh from the Lead Belly Archives about the time he first met Lead Belly and what sort of impact it had on his confidence as a performer on stage. He heard Lead Belly sing songs like "Sylvie", " Goodnight Irene" and " John Henry" live in the Village Vanguard when he was a young man looking for a career in show business.

The most compelling story he mentioned in the interview was about a recent visit to the infamous South African prison Robben Island that held Nelson Mandela for over 25 years. When Belafonte arrived at the prison one of the ex-prisoners told him that they sang the song "Sylvie" for many years without any interruptions from the prison guards because they enjoyed Belafonte songs as well. Belafonte then proceeded to inform the men who are know South African freedom heroes that he learned "Sylvie" from a man who spent many years in the southern prison farms of America....Mr. Huddie Ledbetter.

To catch more of this interview you can see it on the Lead Belly documentary that will be released in 2009.

2008-11-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

The Heart of Lead Belly

A Singer to Be Reckoned With

By Martin Jack Rosenblum

Take out the amateur, needlessly placed poems by Tyehimba Jess in mawkish, embarrassing praise of Lead Belly and we have a perfect book.Lead Belly: A Life inPictures (Steidl) is not merely a picture book at all, but is rife with brilliant essays and era-specific memorabilia that portray the complexity of the man who just might be America's finest folksinger.

Click here: The Heart of Lead Belly

Lead Belly Alabama Bound

2008-11-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

Lead Belly Documentary Diary

2008-10-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

So far for over 10 months Lead Belly Archives and Film house have been in production for the first full length biography of the "King of the 12-string guitar" Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter. In this course we have traveled to New York City and Washington DC to film various historians, musicians, and friends of Lead Belly. We will share with our reader many exclusive photos from this fun and interesting behind the scenes.

Here is a trailer:

WCT celebrates OKTOBERFEST with LEAD BELLY music

2008-09-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

Willits Community Theatre will celebrate the fall season with great beer, food, desserts and entertainment during its fourth annual Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 4.

"Every year has been a sellout and this year will certainly be the same, says WCT producer Stephanie Chatten.

"This year is so special you'll be hearing voices three to be exact and it won't be the beer talking. It's Voices 3 with special guests Bill Barksdale, David Lisle and Malakai Schindel."

Voices 3 features the vocal blend of Kate Black, Paula Murphy and Diane Smalley. "After the group came together in 2007, they considered quitting their day jobs and going on the road, but their acupuncture, chiropractic and family medicine clients wouldn't let them," Chatten says. "So they're signed on to entertain in Willits while enjoying one of life's great pleasures: the magic that comes from creating vocal harmonies together."

All three performers grew up with music in their lives. Smalley and Murphy were both raised in Minnesota; Black was reared in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Smalley has a degree in theater and dance, Murphy is a regularly featured actor with WCT, and Black majored in music education and voice in college.

"The songs they choose are varied," Chatten says, "from old tunes by Leadbelly and Sister Rosetta Tharpe all the way to the Wailin' Jennies, Joni Mitchell and Elton John songs that have a spark, wit or challenge