Click here to purchase this album on Amazon.com

Huddie Ledbetter was discovered in Angola Penitentiary by John and Alan Lomax in 1934, and over the next dozen years Lead Belly committed an extraordinary body of work to the safekeeping of the archives of the Library of Congress. With a memory that stretched back to the 19th century and a wit that addressed topical issues, Lead Belly spun an incomparable body of lore for the microphone of Alan Lomax. Rounder's editions of his Library of Congress recordings are the first American label issues of this material available for nearly 20 years. This first volume contains some of the earliest recordings, including some made while Lead Belly was still in Angola. . . . A varied and valuable portrait emerges from these first recordings of a man whose music measured up to his myth.' --Record Roundup