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unusual facts about Lead Belly


Winnsboro, South Carolina

The traditional blues song Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues was written about working in a cotton mill in Winnsboro; the song has been sung by Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, and other artists and was reworked by modernist composer/pianist Frederic Rzewski.


Musicraft Records

Artists who recorded for Musicraft include singer Mel Torme, vocalist Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington, bebop comic Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, pianist Teddy Wilson, blues pioneer Lead Belly, poet Carl Sandburg, Dizzy Gillespie, Georgie Auld, Artie Shaw, Buddy Greco, Billie Rogers, and others.

Smithsonian Folkways

Some well-known artists have contributed to the Smithsonian Folkways collection, including Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly.

Over the years of Folkways Records, Asch recorded some of the biggest names in music, including Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, Dizzy Gillespie, John Cage, and Charles Ives.

Tomato Records

The label has released albums by influential artists such as Townes Van Zandt, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lead Belly, Chris Smither, Dave Brubeck, Nina Simone, Harry Partch, John Cage and Albert King.

Under Blackpool Lights

Among these tracks, there are some cover songs such as "Take a Whiff on Me" (Lead Belly), "Outlaw Blues" (Bob Dylan), "Jack the Ripper" (Screaming Lord Sutch), "Jolene" (Dolly Parton), "Death Letter" (Son House), "Goin' Back to Memphis" (Soledad Brothers), and "De Ballit of de Boll Weevil" (Lead Belly).

Walter Roland

Apart from those musicians mentioned earlier, Roland's songs have been recorded by notables such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Big Joe Williams, Booker T. Laury, Kim Simmonds, Koerner, Ray & Glover, Fred McDowell, and Lead Belly.

Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs

Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs is a remastered compilation of American folk songs sung by legend Woody Guthrie accompanied by Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry, and Bess Lomax Hawes originally recorded for Moses Asch in the 1940s and re-released in 1989 by Folkways Records.

Yarbrough and Peoples

More recently, in 2009, they both appeared in the Off-Broadway musical, Blind Lemon Blues, at the York Theatre, New York, where Cavin Yarbrough portrayed Lead Belly.


see also

John Lomax

In January, Lomax, who knew nothing whatever about the recording business, became Lead Belly's manager and, through a friend, cowboy singer Tex Ritter, got Lead Belly a recording contract with the famous A&R man Art Satherly of ARC records.