Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter has a new compilation coming out later this year in the form of Smithsonian Folkways' Lead Belly: The Complete Collection. If one thing connects the traditionally black music forms of blues and hip-hop, it's that the performers of both tend to have huge back catalogues that ensure we'll never hear everything they've recorded. Thus the new five-disc collection will include 15 songs that never saw proper release, including a much-discussed narrative discussing Queen Elizabeth's 1947 wedding to Prince Philip (from Rolling Stone).
Part of Lead Belly's allure was his penchant for writing off-the-cuff tunes that commented on everyday occurrences (such as the famous wedding), a habit that lead many to debate whether his songwriting style was more blues or folk (although the wiser among us simple appreciate him just for being Leadbelly). An article from Negro Digest (an indication of just how long ago this song was written) praised the guitarist for his "broadminded" approach to songwriting.
He found a renewed popularity of sorts during the mid-'90s thanks to Kurt Cobain's declaration that Lead Belly was "my favorite performer...our favorite performer(?)" during Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged session, where the band finished after a critically acclaimed take on the bluesman's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
If you yourself are as big a fan of Leadbelly as Cobain was, the Smithsonian Folkways release should be right down your alley. Along with 108 tracks, the set features a book of large-format photographs and an essay/introduction by Smithsonian archivist Jeff Place.
You can check out the aforementioned track, simply titled "Princess Elizabeth," at Rolling Stone. The track features Lead Belly playing one of his preferred 12-string guitars, an instrument that landed him the nickname "king of the 12-string guitar" during his time.
