Audio CD review:
Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 1

Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 1

Band: Leadbelly Title: Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 1 Rating: Release Date: 1996-02-20 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Goodnight Irene 2: Pick a Bale of Cotton 3: Good Morning Blues 4: Grey Goose 5: Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Leadbelly, Traditional 6: Take This Hammer 7: On a Monday 8: Cotton Fields 9: Bring Me Li'l Water, Silvy 10: Moanin' 11: Laura - Leadbelly, Mercer, Johnny 12: Duncan and Brady - Leadbelly, Traditional 13: Rock Island Line 14: Big Fat Woman - Leadbelly, Traditional 15: In New Orleans (House of the Rising Sun) - Leadbelly, Lomax, Alan 16: Chicken Crowing for Midnight - Leadbelly, 17: You Can't Lose Me, Cholly 18: Sally Walker - Leadbelly, 19: Ha Ha This A-Way 20: Yellow Gal 21: Green Corn - Leadbelly, Traditional 22: Let It Shine on Me - Leadbelly, Traditional 23: Meeting at the Building 24: In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down) - Leadbelly, Carr, Leroy 25: Pigmeat 26: Blind Lemon 27: Bottle up and Go - Leadbelly, Traditional 28: Sukey Jump (Win'jammer) - Leadbelly, 29: Old Riley 30: 4, 5, and 9 31: No Good Rider 32: Shorty George 33: Duncan and Brady - Leadbelly, Traditional 34: Leaving Blues

NOT A GOOD RECORDING Man, his voice and that great 12-string guitar just filled the room. I loved the Lusty, vibrant Leadbelly on my old LP. But this cd remastering is a flunk, sounds like a whine in an adjoining room. This is not the first disappointing cd remastering I've bought on line. But I have some great ones as well. Seems like the poor ones are a product of low remastering standards. I'm gonna stick to buying in a store. The roots of quite a lot... Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) was supposedly "discovered" and recorded in prison by John Lomax (the recordings on this CD were recorded by Moses Asch in the 1940s). Lead Belly is one of the best in American music - he's right up there with Woody Guthrie (if not above him, which is more than arguable) in influence and importance for the formation of 20th century music. He also is said to have sung his way into being pardoned (during his second term in prison after being convicted of murder) by the then governor of Texas. He never became a star, but many of his songs have been re-recorded by popular artists (probably the best-known examples are the covers of "Goodnight, Irene" by the Weavers and "Midnight Special" by Credence Clearwater Revival). This collection is a great starting point for Lead Belly's music. It includes some of his most memorable songs: "Irene", "Grey Goose", "Cotton Fields", "Sylvie", "Rock Island Line", "Green Corn". The recording quality is great considering the age of the recordings. Included are plenty of Lead Belly playing his legendary 12-string guitar along with some a capella tracks. The CD booklet has a good biography and extensive track notes, along with quotes from Lead Belly himself about selected songs. If you're curious about Lead Belly this CD is a great introduction to his music. If you want more, this series has 2 additional excellent volumes. lead Its a bit hard to listen to stait through though. This is an essential album to any collection. leadbelly is the daddy mac especially the haunting "where did you sleep last night?", the field holler "pick a bale o cotton", Midnight Special, Leaving Blues, the funky Rock Island Line an the saddest song ever "Childrens blues" about his mother dying. absolutely amazing. if you dig Leadbelly check out Missippi John Hurt, Blind Boy Fuller,Sleepy John Estes, Reverend Gary Davies and early Rory Gallagher. the roots of everything. i nearly flipped my wig when i first heard this. its hard to overestimate the impact lead belly had on music. as a songwriter lead belly is hard to top. he was doing the same thing as blues giants son house and robert johnson were doing but lead belly has a certain passion to what he does. i'm very compelled by lead belly. he is one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters. You can see a complete list of all Leadbelly discography, or go back to the Leadbelly tabs