The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

Author: Charles K. Wolfe
Publisher: Da Capo
ISBN: 9780306808968
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 333

Book Description
Huddie Ledbetter (1889–1949), known to millions of fans simply as Leadbelly, was arguably the most famous black singer in American history. His close musical associations included such towering figures as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and John and Alan Lomax. He helped lay the foundations for blues, modern folk music, and rock 'n' roll. This definitive biography draws on a wealth of new archival material, interviews, and previously unknown recordings to detail Leadbelly's proud, tumultuous, and often violent life.

The Midnight Special

Author: Edmond G. Addeo
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1438975791
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
"First published by Bernard Geis Associates, November, 1971"--T.p. verso.

The Cambridge Companion to the Singer-Songwriter

Author: Katherine Ann Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107063647
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
This Companion explores the historical and theoretical contexts of the singer-songwriter tradition, and includes case studies of singer-songwriters from Thomas d'Urfey through to Kanye West.

Leadbelly

Author: Tyehimba Jess
Publisher: Wave Books
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
National Poetry Series winner makes compelling poetry from the tumultuous life of blues singer Leadbelly.

Alan Lomax

Author: John Szwed
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101190345
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 581

Book Description
The remarkable life and times of the man who popularized American folk music and created the science of song Folklorist, archivist, anthropologist, singer, political activist, talent scout, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, concert and record producer, Alan Lomax is best remembered as the man who introduced folk music to the masses. Lomax began his career making field recordings of rural music for the Library of Congress and by the late 1930s brought his discoveries to radio, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Burl Ives. By the 1940s he was producing concerts that brought white and black performers together, and in the 1950s he set out to record the whole world. Lomax was also a controversial figure. When he worked for the U. S. government he was tracked by the FBI, and when he worked in Britain, MI5 continued the surveillance. In his last years he turned to digital media and developed technology that anticipated today's breakthroughs. Featuring a cast of characters including Eleanor Roosevelt, Leadbelly, Carl Sandburg, Carl Sagan, Jelly Roll Morton, Muddy Waters, and Bob Dylan, Szwed's fascinating biography memorably captures Lomax and provides a definitive account of an era as seen through the life of one extraordinary man.

Up Jumped the Devil

Author: Bruce Conforth
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1641600977
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Book Description
The Penderyn 2020 Music Book Prize (UK edition) Living Blues Critics Choice Best Blues Book of 2019 Living Blues Readers Choice Best Blues Book of 2019 Certificate of Merit in the Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Soul, Gospel, or R&B category from ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) An essential story of blues lore, black culture, and American music history Robert Johnson's recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented. Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson's death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson's life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before. This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.

The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music

Author: Kip Lornell
Publisher: Perigee Trade
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
A comprehensive listener's guide to American folk music provides a concise history of the musical genre and its most important performers, along with an A-to-Z glossary of terms, information on stylistic variations, helpful resources, and a listing of dozens of essential folk music CDs.

The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

Author: Charles K. Wolfe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
The first biography of the legendary folk and blues musician who wrote "Goodnight, Irene" and "Midnight Special"--a man whose extraordinary life moves from Angola Penitentiary to Carnegie Hall. Nashville based Charles Wolfe and Smithsonian consultant Kip Lornell draw on new archival material, obscure recordings, and interviews to provide an unvarnished look at a unique legend. Photographs. Advertising in Living Blues.

I'd Rather Be the Devil

Author: Stephen Calt
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1556527462
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
Skip James (1902–1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of transcendent greatness in a life haunted by failure. And in doing so, Calt offers new insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.

Capital Bluegrass

Author: Kip Lornell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199863113
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Book Description
Documenting the history and development of bluegrass in and around the nation's capital since it emerged in the 1950s, Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C. is central to our understanding of bluegrass in the United States and its place in our nation's capital.