The King of the Twelve String

As much a folk legend as he was a ground-breaking American musician, Huddie Leadbetter captivated depression-era America with his antics, brought the traditional songs of an oppressed people into the public sphere, and influenced generations of musicians to come.

Born in 1888, William Leadbetter was recognized for his strong voice and musicianship long before touring the country with famous anthropologist John Lomax.  Huddie began performing as child and continued until the day he died. His first instrument was the accordion; however, his paradigm was the twelve string guitar, which he learned while performing with the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1912.  Even in 1912, Lead Belly was already addressing race issues, specifically with his song "The Titanic" (which was coincidentally the first song he ever wrote on the twelve string).  Famous boxer Jack Johnson was denied passage onto a ship (although not ACTUALLY the Titanic) because he was black.  When Lead Belly performed for white audiences, he had to leave out the line, "Jack Johnson tried to get on board. The Captain, he says, 'I ain't haulin' no coal!' Fare thee, Titanic! Fare thee well!" 


Music was the lifeblood of Lead Belly and wherever he found himself, he was singing and playing about it. After marrying and fathering two children at the age of twenty, he left his family in search of life as a musician. Throughout his life Lead Belly constantly found himself in trouble with the law, landing prison time on several occasions. He didn't let this hinder his music, however. In 1925, during his second prison term in Sugar Land, he was pardoned after the minimum seven years of his 7-35 year sentence.  His pardon is widely recognized to have been due to his Sunday afternoon performances for the then-governer Pat Morris Neff, for whom he also wrote a song as an appeal to pardon him.  He again used his music to get him out from behind bars, with help from his new friend John Lomax.  Upon release in 1934, Lead Belly was unable to find a job (due to the fierce effects of the depression) and became a driver for Lomax as he collected field recordings and gave lectures.  


While traveling with Lomax, Lead Belly's music was exposed the American public, who received it with open arms.  Along with recording for several record labels (Columbia, Folkways, the Smithsonian Archives, and several more), Lead Belly performed before Lomax's records, and was even featured in one of the first filmed episodes of "March of Time." Although his portrayal in the newsreel is blatantly racist, implying a master/servant relationship between Lomax and Lead Belly (who both play themselves). *Interesting fact---Lead Belly wears a bandana in this film to cover up a gnarly scar on his neck he received when stabbed in a fight while in prison.

Ultimately, Lead Belly had a widely popular musical career full of inflationary legends and characterized by a lack of financial success.  Lead Belly's final performance was actually on campus at the University of Texas for an event honoring John Lomax.

Lead Belly, I believe, is a good representation of the archetypal "Bigger" of which Richard Wright wrote. His uncontrollable temper, his inescapable "blackness" (as seen in the March of Time reel and in his time magazine headline that read 'Lead Belly - Bad Nigger Makes Good Minstrel'), and his roots in the South.  Ironically, Lead Belly was actually a good friend of Wright's, although he was never a communist sympathizer.  The legend of Huddie Leadbetter is bottomless and deserves more than a blog post; but hopefully I've given a historic and cultural context and made a textual connection between Lead Belly and Richard Wrights' Bigger.