![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/lead_belly.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 1948, on a Sunday evening in August, a new radio series premiered. Featuring beloved and renowned folk singer Huddie Ledbetter<\/strong> (aka Lead Belly<\/strong>), The Story of Folklore<\/em> presented the then-fiftyish Lead Belly doing what he did best: singing songs accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, and introducing the songs with brief spoken interludes. As was the standard practice, the shows would be recorded, pressed onto 16\u201d \u201caircheck\u201d discs and then broadcast shortly thereafter. The source for this vinyl release is a set of 78rpm 12\u201d discs cut from a playback of those aircheck discs. The resulting quality is quite clear for a recording of this vintage, and the modern-day producers (noted jazz author Cary Ginell<\/strong><\/a> and Michael Kieffer<\/strong>) are to be commended for their largely hands-off approach that seeks only to present the performance its best form.<\/p>\n Modern listeners who know \u201cHouse of the Rising Sun\u201d from its popular interpretation by The Animals <\/strong>may be surprised to hear Lead Belly’s upbeat, almost happy reading of the tune. On \u201cLeavin’ Blues,\u201d the guitarist shows his skill with the twelve-string; he often sounds as if he’s playing more than one instrument (he’s not; nothing like overdubbing existed in the 40s).<\/p>\n