Fred Ramsey recorded these. It's my favorite look into Leadbelly's music and life of all the things he ever put on record. MUCH better sound than on the Library Of Congress recorded material. There were 2 volumes on Folkways --- 4 long play records total--2 LPs to each volume. The sound was immediate, clear and right there. Some of my favorite things here were recorded when Huddie had left his famous 12-string guitar at home; the unaccompanied results were field hollers--prison work songs and blues done the way Leadbelly had learned them on the work gang in prison. No instrument.

That said, the Capitol Records recordings with ZITHER backup are also among my favorites of Leadbelly's work.

Art Thieme