Lead Belly

Lead Belly was an American folk and blues musician and songwriter, born Huddie Ledbetter, known for forceful twelve-string guitar playing and songs including “Goodnight, Irene.”

John Lomax: An American folklorist who collected and recorded traditional songs for the Archive of American Folk Song. He recorded Ledbetter in Southern prisons and helped bring him to wider attention.
Goodnight, Irene: A traditional American folk song widely popularized by Lead Belly and later recorded by the Weavers. It became his best-known song and a major posthumous hit for the Weavers.
Twelve-string guitar: A guitar with six paired courses of strings, producing a fuller, shimmering sound than a standard six-string guitar. Its resonant sound became a defining feature of Lead Belly's performances.
American folk music revival: A mid-twentieth-century movement that renewed public interest in traditional and politically engaged American folk music. Lead Belly's performances and recordings preceded and helped shape the revival's repertoire.
Alan Lomax: An American folklorist and ethnomusicologist who documented folk music across the United States and beyond. His recordings and introductions helped establish Lead Belly's national reputation.
The Midnight Special: An American folk song associated with prison life and the train's nighttime light. Lead Belly's recording helped make this prison song a folk standard.
Blues: A musical tradition rooted in African American communities, characterized by expressive singing and recurring harmonic patterns. Lead Belly drew on blues phrasing while moving across a broad song repertoire.
The Weavers: An American folk quartet that brought traditional and contemporary songs to mass audiences after World War II. Their hit recording of “Goodnight, Irene” made Lead Belly's song nationally popular.
Martha Promise: An American singer and musician who performed and recorded with Lead Belly, whom she married in 1935. Their partnership shaped his later performances and recordings.
Black Betty: An African American work song recorded by Lead Belly and later adapted by rock musicians. His version preserves a distinctive setting of a song later transformed across genres.

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