“Take a Whiff on Me”: Leadbelly‟S Library of Congress Recordings 1933-1942 — an Assessment
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by SAS-SPACE Blues & Rhythm, No. 59, March-April 1991, pp. 16-20; No. 60, May 1991, pp. 18-21 revised with factual corrections, annotations and additions, with details regarding relevant ancillary CDs, and tables identifying germane CD and LP releases of Leadbelly‘s recordings for the Library of Congress; and those for the American Record Corporation in 1935 “Take A Whiff On Me”: Leadbelly‟s Library of Congress Recordings 1933-1942 — An Assessment John Cowley From the mid-1960s, a small trickle of long-playing records appeared featuring black music from the holdings of the Archive of Folk Culture (formerly Archive of Folk Song) at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C. A few were produced by the Archive itself but, more often than not, arrangement with record companies was the principal method by which this material became available. One of the earliest collections of this type was a three-album boxed set drawn from the recordings made for the Archive by Huddie Ledbetter — Leadbelly — issued by Elektra in 1966. Edited by Lawrence Cohn, this compilation included a very useful booklet, with transcriptions of the songs and monologues contained in the albums, a résumé of Leadbelly‘s career, and a selection of important historical photographs. The remainder of Leadbelly‘s considerable body of recordings for the Archive, however, was generally unavailable, unless auditioned in Washington, D.C. In the history of vernacular black music in the U.S., Leadbelly‘s controversial role as a leading performer in white ‗folk‘ music circles has, for some, set him aside from other similar performers of his generation.
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