A companion to 2012 s GRAMMY-winning Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection, Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection chronicles the recordings of Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter (c. 1888¬ 1949) in 108 tracks over five discs, including Lead Belly s beloved classics "The Midnight Special, " "Goodnight Irene, " and "Black Girl (Where Did You Sleep Last Night) " among many others. The collection also boasts 16 previously unreleased recordings, including four never-before-available original songs, and radio programs Lead Belly made for WNYC which can be heard for the first time since airing in 1941.
The set also features many rare photos, among them an intimate portrait taken shortly before his untimely death from ALS (Lou Gehrig s Disease) in 1949. It is one of the few known color photographs of the legend.
CD1
1. Irene (Goodnight Irene)
2. The Bourgeois Blues
3. Fannin Street (Mister Tom Hughes Town)
4. The Midnight Special
5. John Henry
6. Black Girl (Where Did You Sleep Last Night)
7. Pick a Bale of Cotton
8. Take This Hammer
9. Cotton Fields
10. Old Riley
11. Rock Island Line
12. The Gallis Pole
13. Ha-Ha This a Way
14. Sukey Jump
15. Boll Weevil
16. Scottsboro Boys
17. Governor O.K. Allen
18. Governor Pat Neef
19. There's a Man Going Around Taking Names
20. On a Monday
21. You Can't Lose Me, Cholly
22. Keep Your Hands Off Her
23. We Shall Be Free
CD2
1. Alabama Bound
2. Almost Day
3. Fiddler's Dram
4. Green Corn
5. Sally Walker
6. Bring Me a Little Water, Silvy
7. Julie Ann Johnson
8. Linin' Track
9. Whoa, Back, Buck
10. Shorty George
11. Ham and Eggs (Previously Unreleased)
12. Moanin'
13. Out On the Western Plain
14. Noted Rider
15. Meeting at the Building
16. Good, Good, Good (Talking, Preaching)/We Shall Walk Through the Valley
17. Ain't You Glad (The Blood Done Signed My Name)
18. I'm So Glad, I Done Got Over (Previously Unreleased)
19. The Hindenburg Disaster
20. Ella Speed
21. Haul Away Joe
22. Old Man
23. Sweet Jenny Lee
24. Jean Harlow
25. Laura
26. Queen Mary
CD3
1. Good Morning Blues
2. Sail On, Little Girl
3. Easy Rider
4. Poor Howard
5. Duncan and Brady
6. How Long, How Long
7. T.B. Blues
8. Jim Crow Blues
9. Pigmeat
10. John Hardy
11. Outskirts of Town
12. 4, 5, and 9
13. In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)
14. Red Cross Store Blues
15. Diggin' My Potatoes
16. Blind Lemon
17. When a Man's a Long Way from Home
18. Alberta
19. Excerpt from The Lonesome Train
20. National Defense Blues
21. Hitler Song (Mr. Hitler)
22. Big Fat Woman
23. Been So Long - Bellevue Hospital Blues (Previously Unreleased Original Song)
CD4
1. WNYC Folk Songs of America Lead Belly (Previously Unreleased): a. Grey Goose, b. Boll Weevil, c. Yellow Gal, d. Ha-Ha This a Way, e. Leaving Blues, f. Irene (Outro)
2. WNYC Folk Songs of America Lead Belly and the Oleander Quartet (Previously Unreleased): a. Almost Day, b. Blues in My Kitchen, Blues in My Dining Room, c. I Went Up on the Mountain, d. Good Morning Blues, e. Baby, Don t You Love Me No More, f. T.B. Blues, g. Irene (Outro)
3. If It Wasn t For Dicky (Previously Unreleased)
4. What's You Gonna Do When the World s on Fire w/ Anne Graham (Previously Unreleased)
5. Rock Me - Hide Me in Thy Bosom w/ Anne Graham (Previously Unreleased)
6. Packin' Trunk Blues (Previously Unreleased)
7. Leaving Blues
8. How Come You Do Me Like You Do? (Previously Unreleased)
9. One Dime Blues (Previously Unreleased)
10. I'm Going to Buy You a Brand New Ford (Previously Unreleased Original Song)
11. Jail-House Blues
12. Shout On
13. Come and Sit Down Beside Me
14. Red River (Previously Unreleased)
CD5
1. Yes, I Was Standing in the Bottom
2. Ain't Going Down to the Well No More (Version 2)
3. Everytime I Go Out (Previously Unreleased Original Song)
4. Go Down, Old Hannah
5. Black Betty
6. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out w/ Bessie Smith(Previously Unreleased)
7. Stewball
8. Ain't It a Shame to Go Fishin' on a Sunday
9. Relax Your Mind
10. Princess Elizabeth (Previously Unreleased Original Song)
11. Silver City Bound
12. The Titanic
13. House of the Rising Sun
14. It's Tight Like That
15. Diggin' My Potatoes
16. Springtime in the Rockies
17. Backwater Blues
18. Didn t Old John Cross the Water
19. De Kalb Blues
20. They Hung Him on the Cross (Version 1)
21. They Hung Him on the Cross (Version 2)
22. In the World
