Audio CD review:
Leadbelly - Bridging Lead Belly

Leadbelly - Bridging Lead Belly

Band: Leadbelly Title: Bridging Lead Belly Rating: Release Date: 26 October, 1999 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Boll Weevil 2: I'm Goin' Mother 3: Go Down, Ol' Hannah 4: Prison Holler 5: (Baby) Take A Wiff On Me 6: Irene (Good Night, Irene) (1) 7: Jail-House Blues 8: Old Reilly (In Them Long Hot Summer Days) 9: Ox Driver's Song (Whoa, Back, Buck!) (1) 10: Ox Driver's Song (Whoa, Back, Buck!) (2) 11: Julie Ann Johnson 12: Governor O.K. Allen (AKA Angola Blues) 13: Frankie And Albert 14: St. Louis Blues 15: We're In The Same Boat, Brother 16: Salk Lake City (New York City) 17: Irene (Good Night, Irene) (2)

Editoral Review Included along with basic blues and prison hollers are such favorites as the allegorical "Boll Weevil," the unabashedly hedonistic "Take a Whiff On Me," and the sing-along standard "Good Night, Irene. Bridging Lead Belly is notable primarily for its first 12 tracks, which were recorded in 1938 for the British Broadcasting Corporation and never released in America. " On a couple of songs, Leadbelly does a bit of yodeling, indicative of his fondness for cowboy ballads. The BBC recordings reveal that he was aiming his songs beyond the Southern juke-joint circuit long before he traveled north and became a folk hero in the 1940s. The early tracks are "bridged" by five tracks recorded in 1946 at a living room concert in Salt Lake City, Utah. They're so poorly recorded that they add little to Leadbelly's artistic legacy. --Rick Mitchell .. You can see a complete list of all Leadbelly discography, or go back to the Leadbelly tabs