Leadbelly
It is incredible to grasp the significance of the Lomax's in folk music history. Without their curiosity and desire to record the traditional American songs of the early 1900s I would not have the resources to listen to those songs. The dynamics of time and necessity were great reasons for their tour across America. With the Great Depression hitting hard on the 1930s, John Lomax's children pushed him to record these songs as a source of occupation when so much of the U.S. was struggling. Alan Lomax in particular was interested in prisons for negro music. Unlike the mainstream negro jazz meant to entertain its white audience, Alan saw the music created and sung in prisons as pure because those singing were isolated from the masses and therefore singing for themselves and their own desires.
On one of their trips to a prison, they were shocked to realize that prisoners were prohibited to sing while working on the field. A place where the Lomax's knew negroes were known to sing. In spite of such revelation, they met Huddie Ledbetter better known as Leadbelly. Leadbelly was 42 years old at the time and was facing his second term in prison (for attempted homicide). The Lomax's recorded Leadbelly for the Library of Congress in 1933. Leadbelly was released after serving his minimum sentence in 1934. Unfortunately, Leadbelly was released during the worst time in the Great Depression. Although he acquired fame from his music, he never acquired wealth from it.
Leadbelly left a huge legacy in music. Inspiring artists like Bob Dylan, Elvis, and Kurt Cobain to name a few. The piece that I made is inspired by Lead Belly's "In the Pines." The song is about a man questioning where his partner's fidelity by asking where she spent the night whilst saying that she probably did not spend it out in the pines where it is cold at night. The sound of the song is really dark and sad. The purpose of my piece was to show the complexity of the situation. It is not meant to reveal whether or not the woman cheated but rather to show the depth and complexity of a relationship. I made three separate pieces to show a sequence of emotions in a storyboard-like presentation. The piece is up for interpretation and can be seen as revealing strength, sadness, courage, or embarrassment.
