LEADBELLY-THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS RECORDINGS

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THE RECORDINGS

These recordings were originally made for the Library of Congress during the period ex-
tending from 1933 to 1942, under the supervision of John A. Lomax and/ or Alan Lomax. The
initial session took place at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola while Leadbelly was still a
prisoner and the final one was made in Washington, D.C. in 1942. Along the way there were
numerous sessions and they occured in a varied number of locations: Wilton, Conn., New York
City, Pineville, Ky., Cummings State Prison Farm, Arkansas and Bellwood County Prison Camp,
Atlanta, Ga. among them. The sound reproduction is, by today's high fidelity-stereophonic stand-
ards, rather dim. A great many of the recordings were made in field settings on early, primitive
portable disc-cutting equipment. The equipment along with various aluminum and acetate discs,
though not of the highest quality insofar as' sound is concerned, has served to preserve the many
brilliant performances of Huddie Ledbetter, (a goodly portion of which are found in this collection.)

A further factor which must be mentioned is that many, if not most, of the recordings hadn't
been played for many years prior to our rerecording them onto tape at the Library of Congress.
The conditions of these originals recordings were, for the most part, extremely bad and in some
cases had partially deteriorated thus destroying portions of a particular performance. These old
recordings were not meant for extended preservation or long-life, that appears to be a certainty.

In a number of cases the records chosen for inclusion in this set suffer from various scratches,
digs and general uneveness. It should be borne in mind, however, that this set is not offered as an
exercise in high fidelity but rather as a musical document worthy of preservation because of it's
inherent value as a historical portrait of an important folk-artist.

Inasmuch as the discs were recorded within time limitations, something which the subsequent
advent of tape recording has overcome, duration was of the essence. On some of the longer per-
formances, when the disc would run out Leadbelly would evidently keep performing and in the
process of turning the record over some of the performance would be lost. At other times the
break between parts of a song would result in a change in Leadbelly's tempo. On the transfers
(here) some of the breaks are audibly perceptible.

On "Irene," "Ella Speed" and "The Hindenburg Disaster" much of what has been discussed
in the preceding paragraph is readily evident but certainly not so much as to destroy either the
quality or total continuity of the respective performances.

In transcribing the songs and narrative portions every effort has been made to faithfully re- produce the artist's words. Alan Lomax, the moderator throughout the spoken portions, offered no problem in translation whereas Leadbelly, at times, becomes increasingly difficult to decipher.* This because of a number of contributing factors: his broad, thick Texas-Louisiana accent which was punctuated by poor placement of microphone and artist in many instances and the inferior quality of the surviving disc. During many of the sessions it is apparent that the microphone is being moved up and down, from mouth to guitar, with a resultant uneveness. Unfortunately, in some cases, although in relatively few, some words have been missed. It is sincerely hoped that this will not deter the listener from enjoying the outstanding performances.As was mentioned in the "Chronology" section Huddie Ledbetter was frequently recorded by various commercial companies during the same time span in which he made this material for the Library of Congress. Unfortunately the commercial recordings, with few exceptions, do not show Leadbelly at his best. There was a stiffness and an exaggeration which was fortuitously absent from the Library of Congress sessions. It is felt that Leadbelly never sounded as well anywhere else as he did when he was recording for the Library. He appeared rela~;d, strong, crisp and creative and it is not unlikely that a totally new evaluation of his artistry will be forthcoming as a result of the release of these, his finest performances.*(Particufarly with Leadbelly's "If It Wasn't For Dicky," an adaptation the old "Dhrinnin, Dhu, Dhrinnin.")