By
Ian Caruth
Grade: A
Huddie Ledbetter's story is one of the most fascinating in the annals of Americana. Born on a plantation just two decades out of slavery, he was married and a father by the age of 16, served multiple prison sentences, including one for murder, was the first black bluesman widely accepted by white audiences and was the victim of some of the worst, most racist exploitation of a public figure during this century.
But to concentrate on the saucier aspects of his personal life is to ignore his music - Ledbetter, better known as "Leadbelly," made some of the richest, most enduring folk music of the recorded age.
Evocative of slave field hollers, turn-of-the-century country blues and even early urban white songwriters, Leadbelly's vast catalogue of recordings was a tremendous influence on the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. The works of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan owe great debts to Leadbelly's early folk and protest songs, and the bluesman has been covered by artists as diverse as the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Beck.
Before his death in 1949, Leadbelly recorded hundreds of songs, and some remain obscure enough to quail even the most determined blues completist. Fortunately, the 15 tracks on Absolutely the Best serve as a fine, utterly essential introduction for any fan looking for the roots of modern music.
Leadbelly's huge voice and booming 12-string guitar positively thunder through every track, and the songs are compelling, even archetypal. Leadbelly's songs are full of a kind of experience and hardship that is remote, rare, but still powerful. His voice is the distant birthing cry of a new American musical consciousness, and it still sounds compelling - even 70 years after first being put to tape.
