Document
2004
Leadbelly Live New York 1947 Austin, Texas 1949
About This Album
Whether Leadbelly actually ever wrote a song from scratch is debatable, but perhaps his real talent was his ability to distill traditional pieces to their central elements, then refine them from there into decidedly modern shapes that managed to still keep their folk character intact, creating, in essence, definitive versions. Songs like "Midnight Special" and "Rock Island Line" come immediately to mind. This differed from what Woody Guthrie did, which was to take traditional melodies and graft on new lyrics, making a new song from the shell of the old, and though his songs certainly sounded like old folk tunes, Guthrie's compositions were as new and utilitarian as a freshly minted penny. Guthrie's work, therefore, is grounded in tradition, while Leadbelly's is still very much a part of it -- the logical, modern extension of it. Furthermore, Leadbelly was adept, in his live shows particularly, at placing the song in cultural context, so that if he sang a field holler or a work song, he would demonstrate the song to his audience as much as sing it, showing its utility, all the while reconstructing and -- at times -- reinventing it. This collection from Document Records is both intriguing and a little sad.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 and 15)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.