Lead Belly: Next Steps

Lead Belly: Next Steps

Lead Belly's stints in prison gave his keening wails in “Shreveport Jail” a sense of authenticity. But the guitarist's teeming clouds of picked notes could also conjure up worlds of strife: On “Fannin Street (Mr. Tom Hughes' Town),” Lead Belly's playing threatens to overwhelm the verses, but his cool composure coheres, even when the performance is wild.

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