This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #127 (December 2006/January 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Unearthed

Treasures and Oddities from the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture

by Steve Winick

Lead Belly's "Todd Blues" Disc

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has many thousands of items in its Archive of Folk Culture. These items are organized into "collections," a word that can sometimes be misleading. While some collections are made up of thousands of items, others are no more than a single recording, a photograph, or a few sheets of paper. Some require months of negotiation with a donor or a seller; others are casually dropped off at the AFC's reading room desk. The most exciting collections, though, are surprise discoveries that fill a void in the history of American folklife. An example is a newly discovered recording by Huddie Ledbetter, better known in folk circles as "Lead Belly," a legendary singer, guitarist, and carrier of African American folk traditions from the deep South. Among other items, the recording contains an otherwise unknown song titled "Todd Blues."

The Archive of Folk Culture, part of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, is home to many unusual artifacts related to folk music. This is one in a series of reports on unusual musical materials in the Archive. Steve Winick, contributing editor to Dirty Linen, is also a folklorist, writer, and editor for the American Folklife Center.

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #127 (December 2006/January 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Copyright ©2006 Dirty Linen, Ltd, Baltimore, MD