Leadbelly Huddie Ledbetter's Best... His Guitar, His Voice, His Piano

180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl! Pressed at Pallas in Germany!
Ledbetter's Best contains stirring blues, ragtime piano, slave songs, ballads, reels, spirituals and chain-gang hollers. These recordings by the 60 year old Huddie Ledbetter sound as if they were recorded by a campfire.
Leadbelly's last recordings for a commercial record label were made in the fall of 1944. The 12 songs on the album offer virtuoso guitar playing ("Grasshoppers In My Pillow") and a lively scatt jazz sound powered by the piano (in "The Eagle Rocks", Leadbelly himself reaches into the keys – a talent he never knew before). Well-known standard pieces are played in amazing variations, including "Goodnight", "Irene", "Rock Island Line" and "Ella Speed", accompanied by a restrained zither (Paul Mason Howard) and Leadbelly's guitar. He sings excellently and plays on the guitar as well as on the piano in top form.
In California, Leadbelly explores his commercial possibilities and meets an old friend, Tex Ritter. He invites him to his house and together with Merle Travers and the manager of the Capitol label, Lee Gillette, they do a few rehearsal sessions. Leadbelly really gets going and Capitol then manages to record the clearest and most expressive melodies of the musician. The recordings are among the best that was recorded on the twelve-sided guitar at that time.
Unfortunately, only a handful of the recordings were released during the musician's lifetime, which led him to believe that he had once again landed in a career deadlock. In 1956 and 1962, the album finally came out and Dave Dexter Jr. in a passionate plea calls for this last commercial record to be acquired by Leadbelly - one of the most respected blues musicians and singers of the century.
Production note: Although the album was produced in the best possible quality today, it cannot be measured against today's standards of sonic quality. This would not be possible with a tape material that was created under the conditions of the recording technology of the time.

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Pressed at Pallas in Germany
• Limited Edition
• Audiophile Re-mastering

Musicians:

• Leadbelly (g, p)
• Paul Mason Howard (zither)

Selections:

Side A
1. Goodnight, Irene
2. Grasshoppers In My Pillow
3. The Eagle Rocks
4. Rock Island Line
5. Ella Speed
6. Backwater Blues
Side B
1. Take This Hammer
2. Tell Me, Baby
3. Eagle Rock Rag
4. Western Plain
5. Sweet Mary Blues
6. On a Christmas Day