Leadbelly, uhh...

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Ive downloaded about a million songs, all are great (John Henry = godlike)

BUT

I cannot find a single CD to buy. According to allmusic, he doesn't really even have any LPs, just a bunch of collections... and Im not sure which ones are good...

Help plz.

― David Allen, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Man I hate a "best of...." But for leadbelly the library of congress recordings are a good start and you might not have heard them.
Did you check GEMM?

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Your best bet would be a 3-CD compilation on the Catfish label, "The Definitive Leadbelly." Great sound and a bargain to boot.
The best-sounding Charlie Patton release ever was on Catfish, too.
If you're looking for "albums," then check out "Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs."

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

The best-sounding Charlie Patton release ever was on Catfish, too.

The new box on JSP sounds much better.

My favorite Lead Belly (note word space, this is he and his wife' preferred spelling): (1) the informal living room sessions (complete with Lead Belly chatting away between songs) compiled on Lead Belly's Last Sessions (2) Lead Belly Sings for Children, the first thing Moe Asch ever released I believe, in 1941.

But the Catfish thing has most of what you need from the commercial recordings (and I believe some of the Moe Asch stuff as well.)

He's a major figure. His biography (by Kip Lornell and Charles Wolfe I think) is very good.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

I was singing Goodnight Irene very loudly a lot on Saturday - for some reason it is Bristol Rovers' fans' theme song.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hmmm. Wasn't aware there was a JSP box on Patton, Amateurist. I'll have to check it out, since I've always sung the praises of JSP.
For years I had the Yazoo sets, which were unlistenable. I could barely make out the music. Strange, since Yazoo's releases are usually top notch.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 20:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

try and check Leadbelly on VHS or DVD, worth it all around

― steve k (http://go.to/stevek) (stevek10), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 01:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

four years pass...

I have a Columbia CD, inherited from my stepfather, simply entitled 'Leadbelly'. It's probably out of print but worth tracking down. The catalogue no. is CK 30035.

― moley, Sunday, 23 September 2007 07:30 (sixteen years ago) link

seven years pass...

http://www.folkways.si.edu/leadbelly

Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, the first career-spanning box set dedicated to the American music icon, will be released on February 24, 2015.
Preorder the 5 CD, 140-page, large-format book at a special price and receive an instant digital album download. An exclusive poster and t-shirt package is also available.

― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 November 2014 19:23 (nine years ago) link

i can't tell how much of this has been released on Smithsonian Folkways's earlier Lead Belly CDs.

― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 November 2014 19:24 (nine years ago) link

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