I can understand Lonnie Donnegan. Theres quite a lot about Leadbelly that I don't really understand.

rather like Robert Johnson, Huddie seems to inhabit a savage landscape. I listen to the music and despite the brilliant musicianship -he's talking about a world I'm not familiar with. (thank God, I am tempted to say.) I listen to the songs and can't begin to grasp how they worked in a social context.

The movie Leadbelly was, to my mind at least, an honourable attempt to show how how they might have worked - but they smoothed out the music a lot to achieve this.

all of his biographers say for example that Huddie was a brilliant childrens entertainer, that I really don't get.

Lonnie I listen to for fun. Put on Cumberland Gasp, close your eyes , and you can almost see the st kids jiving and the stocking tops.