Leadbelly - Leadbelly's Last Sessions (4 CD, 1994/FLAC)

 Recorded between September and November, 1948. Originally released on Folkways (241/2941, 242/2942). Includes liner notes by Frederic Ramsey, Jr. Moses Asch, Sean Killeen, Anthony Seeger, Jeff Place and Matt Walters.

Legend has it that when Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter was shown one of the first commercially available tape recorders--as opposed to the then-standard disc-cutting machines--in the fall of 1948, he immediately sat down in front of it for a marathon impromptu recording session. This fact comes across on the first of these discs taken from those tapes: most of its 35 tracks are traditional blues hollers without even his trademark 12-string guitar for accompaniment.

The other three discs are jam-packed with songs, fragments, and often fascinating conversations. Rather than edit the material--which the listener can do quite nicely with a programmable CD player and blank cassettes--the archivists at Smithsonian/Folkways wisely chose to release these four hours of material exactly as it was recorded. As a result, the sound quality is occasionally a bit dodgy, but the historical import and musical quality of these recordings are undeniable. 

 

Disc 1
1. Yes, I Was Standing in the Bottom
2. Yes, I'm Going Down to Louisiana
3. I Ain't Going Down to the Well No More
4. Dick Ligger's Holler
5. Miss Liza Jane
6. Dog Latin Song
7. Leaving Blues
8. Go Down, Old Hannah
9. Blue Tail Fly
10. Nobody in This World Is Better Than Us
11. We're in the Same Boat, Brother
12. Looky, Looky Yonder
13. Jolly O' the Ransom
14. Old Ship of Zion
15. Bring Me a Little Water, Silvy
16. Mistreatin' Mamma
17. Black Betty
18. Ain't Goin Down to the Well No More
19. I'm Going Back Down in Louisiana
20. I Don't Know You, What Have I Done
21. Rock Island Line
22. Old Man, Will Your Dog Catch a Rabbit?
23. Shorty George
24. Stewball
25. Bottle up & Go
26. You Know I Got to Do It
27. Ain't It a Shame to Go Fishin' on a Sunday
28. I Ain't Gonna Drink Anymore
29. Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues - (previously unreleased)
30. My Lindy Lou
31. I'm Thinking of a Friend
32. He Never Said a Mumbling Word
33. I Don't Want No More of Army Life
34. In the World
35. I Want to Go Home

Disc 2
1. New Iberia
2. Dancing With Tears in My Eyes
3. John Henry
4. Salty Dog
5. National Defense Blues
6. Easy, Mr. Tom
7. Relax Your Mind
8. Bottle up and Go
9. Polly Wolly Wee
10. Pig Latin Song - (alternate take)
11. Hawaiian Song
12. Drinkin' Lum y a Alla
13. Grey Goose, The
14. Silver City Bound
15. Titanic, The
16. Death Letter Blues
17. Mary Don't You Weep
18. He Never Said a Mumbling Word

Disc 3
1. Midnight Special
2. Boll Weevil Song
3. Careless Love
4. Easy Rider
5. Cry For Me
6. Ain't Going to Drink No More (De Kalb Blues)
7. Birmingham Jail
8. Old Riley
9. Julie Ann Johnson
10. It's Tight Like That
11. 4, 5 & 9
12. Good Morning Babe, How Do You Do?
13. Jail House Blues
14. Well, You Know I Had to Do It
15. Irene
16. 25 Cent Dude
17. How Come You Do Me Like You Do?
18. Hello Central
19. Hesitation Blues
20. I'll Be Down on the Last Bread Wagon

Disc 4
1. Somebody's Diggin' My Potatoes - (previously unreleased)
2. Springtime in the Rockies
3. Chinatown
4. Rock Island Line
5. Backwater Blues
6. Sweet Mary
7. Irene
8. Easy, Mr. Tom
9. In the Evening, When the Sun Goes Down
10. I'm Alone Because I Love You
11. House of the Rising Sun
12. Mary Don't You Weep
13. Talk About Fannin Street
14. Fannin Street
15. Sugared the Beer
16. Didn't Old John Cross the Water
17. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
18. Bully of the Town
19. Sweet Jenny Lee
20. Yellow Gal
21. He Was the Man
22. We're in the Same Boat, Brother
23. Leaving Blues