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One thing to keep in mind about Leadbelly is he is discographically complicated. He recorded so much, and so much is available on different CDs. I should point out that the Wolfe/Lornell biography The Life and Legend of Leadbelly is invaluable for many reasons, not least of all the discography at the back. Highly recommended -- essential for Lead-heads -- and while I'm not sure it's currently available from the publisher, there are some cheap used copies available through Amazon right now.Armed with that, you will also benefit from Chris Smith's section on Leadbelly in the Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings, in which he does his best to sort through the many Leadbelly recordings currently available and provides valuable info as usual, even if you don't agree with all of his comments. He notes that the Document CDs of the 1935-42 material for the LoC and ARC are generally better than the Rounder LoC discs. Apparently Document copied it from an early tape being prepared for a boxed LP set and the Rounder discs were done later, by which point the original recordings had deteriorated and transfers were iffy. So here's a case where Document clocks in with apparently better sound. Relatively speaking, of course. The book does not deal with the Leadbelly set from JSP that Stuart mentioned and about which I know nothing, discographically speaking. Nor would it deal with the recent release from World Arbiter, obviously, which includes some unreleased radio recordings.
For interest each Document LP carries the following note:. . . Huddie Lebetter was frequently recorded by various commercial companies during the same time span in which he made this material for the Library of Congress. Unfortunately the commercial recordings, with few exceptions, do not show Leadbelly at his best. There was a stiffness and an exaggeration which was fortuitously absent from the Library of Congress sessions. It is felt that Leadbelly never sounded as well anywhere else as he did when he was recording for the Library. He appeared relaxed, strong, crisp and creative and it is not unlikely that a totally new evaluation of his artistry will be forthcoming as a result of the release of these, his finest performances.
Despite the haphazard nature of the Rounder CDs (they don't appear to be in chronological order and there are no discographical details included)