Anyway...I first heard of Leadbelly through Lonnie Donegan and UK persons may recall a Wally Whyton Light Programme series on a weekday lunchtime. I think it was a Thursday. That was spaggheti hoops day so I always assoiate Leadbelly with spaghetti hoops.
In the early 60s I went to the youth club where John Connolly sometimes played and he brought Alexis Korner's R and B at the Marquee. Another friend had the, then, recent Muddy Waters at Newport and at around the same time Pye released their Red and yellow R'n'b series with all the Chess and Checker people. I also heard Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee's Blues Is A Story LP and so all the various USA threads began to come together. Helped occasionally by Dave berry and the Cruisers and Joe Cocder's Big Blues. The Mississippi solo players, such as Charlie Patton came later, in mycase.
There and not a hint of politics!!
The Blues in all it's forms is by no means my only preferred music but if I ever feel like a quick twang on me Harmony..The Bourgeois Blues or Keep Your Hands off Her still goes down a personal treat.
Bobert, me old love 200 surely on the horizon.