Lead Belly: Deep Cuts

Lead Belly's politics tended toward the liberal and populist: When he wasn't chasing away personal demons with the blues, he sang admiringly of FDR (“The Roosevelt Song”) and told the Nazis to prepare for defeat (“Mr. Hitler”). In less dramatic moments, Lead Belly adopted an acidly satiric tone, especially when singing about racist office holders in Washington, D.C., on “Bourgeois Blues.”