Ha, Ha! Leadbelly seemed to name drop quite a bit..just like a lot of others. He refers to Bessie Smith as his "girlfriend" once. From what I've gathered he probably DID hang out with Blind Lemon in the early days...but remember, Lemon was probably the most famous bluesman of all by the late twenties, so a little "embellishment" of their relationship wouldn't have hurt. Lemon was also dead before 1930, so he wouldn't have had the opportunity to deny the close relationship. Sounds a bit like Bobby Dylan's "entertainment stories" when he first came to New York.

Rick