Lead Belly – Smithsoniam Folkways Collection Box Set

I can’t imagine life without the iPod. I listen to music across a variety of genres. I love the opportunity to summon a song from a wide spectrum of tone, mood, and spirit. To have that itch scratched at a moment’s notice.

But imagine all that within one human being. A single, solitary man who absorbed music, tradition, and verse from not just old school blues halls or medicine shows, but chain gangs, cotton fields, gospel houses, sukey jumps, New York City concert halls, folk music circles, and jook joints, to name a few. To have captured those spirits and preserved them in amber, untouched by the influence of radio. And to be able to pick up a 12-string guitar and call upon music traditions stretching back into forever.

That’s Lead Belly. You can buy all the Lead Belly albums you want and still probably never hear all his repertoire. Also, you could start writing today and ten years later, still never cover every artist influenced by Lead Belly, whether they know it or not.

However, a good start would be the new Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection box set.  While it is a great starting point for folks who are new to Lead Belly, a lifelong fan like myself who perhaps already has a significant collection of Lead Belly music would probably ask if there’s a good reason to drop a chunk of change of this box set.

I would tell them no, there isn’t one good reason. There are ten.

TOP TEN REASONS TO DROP A CHUNK OF CHANGE ON THE
LEAD BELLY: THE SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS COLLECTION

10. THE PHOTOGRAPHS

It doesn’t matter if your coffee table is mahogany wood or an upturned cardboard box, the 140-page large format book will look super great atop it. Girls will want to hang out and flip through the pages and guys will tell you how cool you are for having it. The last generation of music lovers probably got their exposure to Lead Belly through Kurt Cobain’s mind blowing performance of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” on MTV: Unplugged. Can you imagine being the guy to turn on the following generations? These slick photographs should do the trick.

9. THE ESSAYS

I can nerd out on some liner notes, man. The best ever liner notes came off the Dylan album, Bringing It All Back Home. I really love getting four-disc themed box sets that cover entire sub-genres like rockabilly, western swing, and Detroit blues (all of which are in Lead Belly’s wheelhouse). One of the best parts of the collections are the liner notes. Glossy booklets written by scholars who also like to nerd out. The book has two of such essays. One by Robert Santelli, the Executive Director of the Grammy Museum, and another by Grammy-winning Smithsonian Folkways archivist Jeff Place. The Place essay is very in-depth and compelling and well worth multiple readings. Especially enlightening is the piece “Why He Sang Certain Songs” by his niece Tiny Robinson. I’m this close to tearing that out of my book so I can hang it on my wall.

8. THEY WNYC FOLK SONGS OF AMERICA RADIO SHOWS

This is where it’s at. Lead Belly sits in on two radio shows featuring his music. Lead Belly spent his later years in New York City in the nascent stages of the folk scene. He enjoyed a fine bit of notoriety and appeared on a couple radio programs. These sets on WNYC run six and seven songs, and the second one features the Oleander Quartet. This is a treat, man. You can’t find that on the internet (yet).

7. LEAD BELLY NARRATION

I’m a sucker for Lead Belly’s narration between songs. The dude’s like a walking history book. Not only did he save entire traditions in music from history’s recycle bin, but nobody explains East Texas life better than Lead Belly. Often, he explains his inspiration for the song, or the source material. In “Rock Island Line,” he explains the song’s refrain. His version of “Boll Weevil” is a new one, according to the engineer, and it tells the story of one of the South’s biggest scourges from the point of view of a man who picked his share of cotton. The other scourge is detailed in “Scottsboro Boys,” the story of a Civil Rights nightmare, during the days when Civil Rights were hardly even a dream. And, we are treated to a white dude translating for him before “Ham and Eggs,” which I hear was commonplace back in those days. Get your fingers on “It’s Tight Like That,” which he explains used to get the girls to jumping. If it don’t get you to jumping, there’s nothing I can do for you.

6. “NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT”

Whoa. When I first put on this track, I have to say I was plenty revved up at the prospect of a track with Lead Belly singing duet with Bessie Smith. I mean, can you imagine…? What we get instead is Lead Belly singing along with a recording off a 78. We hear him listening to a record the same way we would: singing along with a legend. He is silent, reverent, and touchingly sweet. You can hear the deep respect he holds for Bessie in every breath and it’s amazing.

It’s not Bessie and Huddie singing together, but man is it a close second.

5. LINER NOTES

I know I alluded to liner notes above, but get ready for liner notes on crack. Not only are you getting five CDs with 108 tracks, but each of those tracks are given due diligence in the back half of the book. As you may know, you can buy 20 different Lead Belly albums and get 22 different recordings of “Goodnight Irene” or “Midnight Special.” The liner notes tell you precisely what is unique about the recordings included in the box set, or offer interesting anecdotes of each one. It’s an in-depth, immersive experience.

4. “SILVER CITY BOUND”

There’s no better example of what Lead Belly does for us than “Silver City.” Entire music traditions would be forgotten today, were it not for Lead Belly keeping them free from the influence of radio (he was imprisoned during the beginning of radio and the jazz era). He did the same with the history of the unique terrain in East Texas/West Louisiana. I’ve got a pretty good Lead Belly collection, but the only place I’ve ever heard “Silver City Bound” was in the excellent film Leadbelly, (Gordon Parks, dir) starring Roger E. Mosley. This box set has it.

Silver City was a Texas town that pre-dated the Civil War. It served as a bus stop on Lead Belly’s days riding a circuit with Blind Lemon Jefferson. He prefaces the song by describing towns where I grew up – Corsicana, Waxahachie, Waco, Ft. Worth… – as well as his profound love for his former traveling partner. He tells of their days busking across the East Texas countryside. If I had three wishes, one of them would be to catch Lead Belly and Blind Lemon Jefferson on the steps of the Silver City post office or bus station.

Now Silver City is a sign on the side of the highway and a boarded up gas station. The last census claimed it had a population of 25. However, thanks to Lead Belly, it will be immortalized forever in this collection.

3. UNRELEASED SONGS

Collect all the Lead Belly albums you want, but the only place to find sixteen of these tracks is on the collection by Smithsonian Folkways. One treat is Lead Belly’s interpretation of a friend’s interpretation of an old Irish song which became “If It Wasn’t For Dicky.” His haunting story telling behind that bass strum… man, this guy… Or his turn with Blind Lemon’s “One Dime Blues” is amazing. His declaration in “I’m Going to Buy You a Brand New Ford” is worth the price of admission, and you won’t find the prescient “Been So Long (Bellevue Hospital Blues)” anywhere else.  And historians and fans alike will enjoy “Princess Elizabeth,” a song Huddie wrote for the young Royal by putting new lyrics to Bessie Smith’s “Aggravatin’ Papa.”

2. IT’S CAREER-SPANNING

Big-time. Other CDs will focus on a particular aspect or nuance of Lead Belly’s career. Perhaps the “20 Greatest” or his “Last Sessions” or folk days, or blues songs, or country songs and so on. This box set manages to pull from his entire catalogue. The listener gets the popular tunes like “Goodnight Irene” and “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?,” but also gets a sprinkling from all his influences. The sukey jumps with “Yellow Gal” and “Green Corn,” the blues with “Midnight Special.” The folk influence is never more present than his song about current events like “Mr. Hitler” or “National Defense Blues.” He recounts history with “The Hindenburg Disaster” and “The Titanic.” He was paroled twice from the toughest prisons in America because he sang to the governor and both pardon songs are included in this set. We get to hear him when he’s young, and we get to hear him before ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) took hold of him during his final days.

Lead Belly was a walking history lesson, a carrier of folk traditions. This box set captures his contributions and saves them for the rest of us.

1. LEAD BELLY IS PERSONAL

Everyone will have their favorite Lead Belly songs, as well as their favorite version. Some like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “Midnight Special” better, some folks think Ram Jam’s “Black Betty” is the superior version. No matter if you prefer sea shanties or work songs, country or blues. Maybe you discovered him through Nirvana, maybe you served time with him. Maybe you’re like me and you think “Take This Hammer” is one of the best songs of all time, or perhaps you’re more a fan of “Go Down, Old Hannah.”  Everyone has their own special relationship to Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter.

I suggest you order the box set Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection and come up with ten reasons of your own.

Eryk Pruitt is a screenwriter, author and filmmaker living in Durham, NC with his wife Lana and cat Busey.  His short films FOODIE and LIYANA, ON COMMAND have won several awards at film festivals across the US.  His fiction appears in The Avalon Literary Review, Pulp Modern, Thuglit, and Zymbol, to name a few.  In 2013, he was a finalist for Best Short Fiction in Short Story America and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes for 2014. His novel Dirtbags was published in April 2014, and HASHTAG will be published by 280 Steps in May, 2015. A full list of credits can be found at erykpruitt.com.