Released in 1939 on Musicraft Records as a five-disc collection of 10" 78 rpm records (catalog no. Musicraft Album 31), Negro Sinful Songs—also issued as Negro Sinful Songs Sung by Lead Belly—is the first album-length statement by Huddie William Ledbetter and a landmark in the documentation of American folk music. Recorded in a single day, it was the first set of folk music recordings ever issued in the 12-inch album format with explanatory liner notes and a biography of the singer. In 1998, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the same year.
Recording Sessions & Production
The album was recorded on April 1, 1939 in New York City.
Alan Lomax produced the session and wrote the album's liner notes. The session was arranged under extraordinary circumstances: in March 1939, Lead Belly had been arrested for stabbing a man in New York and was jailed at Riker's Island.
Lomax arranged Lead Belly's bail, dropped his graduate courses at Columbia University, and negotiated the Musicraft deal to help meet legal expenses and provide financial assistance for Lead Belly's wife, Martha.
The session yielded 14 takes, of which 10 were selected for the album. The fledgling Musicraft label had been founded to record Baroque and pre-Bach organ music but had also embraced Black folk music.
These were the first recordings of folk music ever issued in this format with a set of explanatory notes and a biography of the singer.
The songs were used through the courtesy of John A. Lomax and the McMillan Company, reflecting the Lomaxes' role in collecting and copyrighting arrangements of traditional material.
The Musician
-
Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) — Vocals, 6-string guitar, 12-string guitar, hand clapping, foot stomping
Lead Belly performed as a one-man band throughout the session, accompanying himself on both six-string and twelve-string guitars, clapping his hands, and stomping his feet to generate rhythmic drive. On the work song and field holler medleys, he sang unaccompanied (despite what the original labels claimed).
He switched between instruments mid-session: playing six-string guitar on "Poor Howard," then switching to twelve-string for "Green Corn," and tap-dancing between the two tunes.
Track-by-Track Breakdown
The album was issued as five 78 rpm discs (Musicraft 223, 224, 225, 226, and 227), with two sides per disc.
Disc One — Musicraft 223
Side A: "Frankie and Albert (First Half)" (2:52)
Matrix: GM-499-K
Songwriter: Traditional / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
Lead Belly opens the album with the first half of one of the greatest American folk songs, also known as "Frankie and Johnny." His rendition is considerably more plaintive than the popular "gay nineties" corruptions; the liner notes explain that Lead Belly looked scornfully upon those versions and preferred the "tough-minded account of murder, told from the inside."
The song tells the true story of a young woman who killed her lover over infidelity with "Alice Pryor" (rather than the more common "Nellie Bly"). This was among the first songs Lead Belly recorded for John A. Lomax in July 1933, and this commercial version is much the same, though longer—his full version reportedly ran more than fifteen minutes.
Matrix: GM-499-K
Songwriter: Traditional / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
Lead Belly opens the album with the first half of one of the greatest American folk songs, also known as "Frankie and Johnny." His rendition is considerably more plaintive than the popular "gay nineties" corruptions; the liner notes explain that Lead Belly looked scornfully upon those versions and preferred the "tough-minded account of murder, told from the inside."
Side B: "Looky, Looky, Yonder" / "Black Betty" / "Yallow Women's Door Bells" (3:00 total)
Matrix: GM-503-M
Songwriters: Traditional
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, hand clapping, foot stomping—unaccompanied by guitar)
Recorded as one continuous take and therefore sharing a single matrix number, this side presents three work songs sung unaccompanied. Alan Lomax described them as songs that "helped to build the South"—"Looky, Looky, Yonder" and "Black Betty" are "chopping songs," while "Yallow Women's Door Bells" (also rendered "Yellow Women's Door Bells") is a "cross-cut sawing song."
"Black Betty" would later become widely known through Ram Jam's 1977 rock hit, but here it is stripped to its essence: a raw, rhythmic work song delivered with hand claps and foot stomps.
Matrix: GM-503-M
Songwriters: Traditional
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, hand clapping, foot stomping—unaccompanied by guitar)
Recorded as one continuous take and therefore sharing a single matrix number, this side presents three work songs sung unaccompanied. Alan Lomax described them as songs that "helped to build the South"—"Looky, Looky, Yonder" and "Black Betty" are "chopping songs," while "Yallow Women's Door Bells" (also rendered "Yellow Women's Door Bells") is a "cross-cut sawing song."
Disc Two — Musicraft 224
Side A: "Frankie and Albert (Completion)" (3:08)
Matrix: GM-499-A
Songwriter: Traditional / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
The conclusion of the "Frankie and Albert" narrative. Originally, both halves of the song were pressed on the same disc (223), but after the first pressing, the completion was moved to the A-side of Disc Two to accommodate automatic record changers, which could move from one disc to another but not flip discs.
Matrix: GM-499-A
Songwriter: Traditional / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
The conclusion of the "Frankie and Albert" narrative. Originally, both halves of the song were pressed on the same disc (223), but after the first pressing, the completion was moved to the A-side of Disc Two to accommodate automatic record changers, which could move from one disc to another but not flip discs.
Side B: "Ain't Goin' Down to the Well No Mo'" / "Go Down Old Hannah" (3:17 total)
Matrix: GM-509-K
Songwriters: Traditional
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals—unaccompanied)
Two field hollers recorded as one continuous take. "Go Down Old Hannah" is a prison holler addressed to the sun, begging it to set and end the day's labor. These are among the most starkly beautiful performances on the album, demonstrating Lead Belly's ability to generate immense rhythmic and emotional power with only his voice.
Matrix: GM-509-K
Songwriters: Traditional
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals—unaccompanied)
Two field hollers recorded as one continuous take. "Go Down Old Hannah" is a prison holler addressed to the sun, begging it to set and end the day's labor. These are among the most starkly beautiful performances on the album, demonstrating Lead Belly's ability to generate immense rhythmic and emotional power with only his voice.
Disc Three — Musicraft 225
Side A: "Poor Howard" / "Green Corn" (3:13 total)
Matrix: GM-505-K
Songwriters: Traditional
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, 6-string guitar on "Poor Howard," 12-string guitar on "Green Corn," tap dancing between tunes)
Two "sukey jump" (square dance) tunes that were among the first songs Lead Belly learned, which he would play at square dances in Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
The transition between the two tunes is marked by Lead Belly tap dancing—"he knocks an old fashioned backstep and cuts a couple of pigeon wings."
Matrix: GM-505-K
Songwriters: Traditional
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, 6-string guitar on "Poor Howard," 12-string guitar on "Green Corn," tap dancing between tunes)
Two "sukey jump" (square dance) tunes that were among the first songs Lead Belly learned, which he would play at square dances in Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
Side B: "Fannin Street" (2:39)
Matrix: GM-498
Songwriter: Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
One of Lead Belly's signature compositions, also known as "Mr. Tom Hughes' Town." He recorded it at least ten times throughout his career, beginning at Angola Prison Farm on July 1, 1934.
The song describes his youth in Shreveport, Louisiana, when he would "put on long pants" and go with his father to sell cotton, then venture down to the Bottoms on Fannin Street to the barrelhouses. Tom Hughes was sheriff of Shreveport from 1916 to 1940. The liner notes describe it as "a hell-bent red light rag, in piano time."
Matrix: GM-498
Songwriter: Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
One of Lead Belly's signature compositions, also known as "Mr. Tom Hughes' Town." He recorded it at least ten times throughout his career, beginning at Angola Prison Farm on July 1, 1934.
Disc Four — Musicraft 226
Side A: "The Boll Weevil" (3:07)
Matrix: GM-507-A
Songwriter: Traditional / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
A legendary American folk song about the insect that devastated Southern cotton crops after arriving from Mexico via the Rio Grande in 1892.
Lead Belly learned it from his uncle Terrill Ledbetter. The same song was recorded by Charley Patton as "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" in 1929.
Matrix: GM-507-A
Songwriter: Traditional / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
A legendary American folk song about the insect that devastated Southern cotton crops after arriving from Mexico via the Rio Grande in 1892.
Side B: "De Kalb Blues" (2:52)
Matrix: GM-501
Songwriter: Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
A haunting, autobiographical blues. Though Lead Belly doesn't specify which De Kalb he is singing about, his pronunciation as "Dee-Kab" suggests De Kalb, Texas, in the northeastern part of the state near where he grew up.
Matrix: GM-501
Songwriter: Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
A haunting, autobiographical blues. Though Lead Belly doesn't specify which De Kalb he is singing about, his pronunciation as "Dee-Kab" suggests De Kalb, Texas, in the northeastern part of the state near where he grew up.
Disc Five — Musicraft 227
Side A: "The Gallis Pole" (3:02)
Matrix: GM-509-A
Songwriter: Traditional (Child Ballad No. 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows") / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
Lead Belly's version of the ancient folk ballad "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child Ballad No. 95), though he presents the condemned as a man.
The track is nothing short of a masterpiece, with what the Old Time Blues blog described as "light-speed guitar picking."
Matrix: GM-509-A
Songwriter: Traditional (Child Ballad No. 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows") / Adapted by Huddie Ledbetter
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
Lead Belly's version of the ancient folk ballad "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child Ballad No. 95), though he presents the condemned as a man.
Side B: "The Bourgeois Blues" (3:16)
Matrix: GM-504
Songwriters: Huddie Ledbetter & Alan Lomax
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
The album closes with Lead Belly's most famous protest song, written two years prior to this recording after an experience of Jim Crow in Washington, D.C.
As Lomax recounted in the liner notes: "One rainy night in Washington, [Lead Belly] and [his wife] Martha were unable to find a room in any of the inexpensive Negro hotels and were finally forced to spend the night in the apartment of a white friend. The next morning the white landlord made a scene about the fact that a Negro had spent the night in his house. Lead Belly overheard the discussion and on his return to New York composed this blues-narrative."
The refrain—"Home of the brave, land of the free / I don't want to be mistreated by no bourgeoisie"—remains one of the most powerful statements in American folk music.
Matrix: GM-504
Songwriters: Huddie Ledbetter & Alan Lomax
Musicians: Lead Belly (vocals, guitar)
The album closes with Lead Belly's most famous protest song, written two years prior to this recording after an experience of Jim Crow in Washington, D.C.
Critical Assessment & Legacy
Negro Sinful Songs was a revolutionary release. As the Old Time Blues blog noted, "In my opinion, Lead Belly's Musicraft recordings—the ten sides in this album and the other eight sides of his issued sides on the label—were perhaps his finest commercially issued works."
The album introduced Lead Belly to the budding urban folk scene. Even though he had recorded over two hundred titles for the Library of Congress, he was virtually unknown to the record-buying public before this release.
The range of material—work songs, field hollers, square dance tunes, blues, ballads, and protest songs—demonstrated the breadth of Lead Belly's repertoire and established the template for the folk singer as a living archive of American musical tradition. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and the entire folk revival generation would build upon the foundation laid here.
Today, Negro Sinful Songs remains an essential document of American music—the sound of a man who had survived Angola Prison, the Texas penitentiary, and decades of hard labor, channeling his experience into songs that would shape the course of folk, blues, and rock and roll for generations to come.
