This is the story of , Lead Belly Music’s Most Iconic Murderer, Huddie Ledbetter, better known as “Lead Belly,” was one of the greatest blues musicians of all time. The Houston-born musician, who died in 1949, inspired John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and many other iconic performers; he played guitar, harmonica and sang with his velvety voice (which could go from a high tenor to a low baritone) on dozens of songs that were widely recorded during his career, including “Crazy Man Blues,” “Goodnight Irene” and “Mean Old World,” which Rolling Stones once said is the best song ever written about a “bad guy who is still a bad guy.
Lead Belly’s songs covered a wide range of genres and topics including gospel music; blues about women, liquor, prison life, and racism; and folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding, and dancing. He also wrote songs about people in the news, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, Jack Johnson, the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes. Lead Belly is one of the most recorded American artists, with more than 300 songs written by him or attributed to him, many on record for the first time since his death in 1949 Lead Belly’s work has been widely covered by subsequent musical acts.