Negro Folk Songs

Negro Folk Songs
Negro Folk Songs
Studio album by Lead Belly
Released	1946
Recorded	October 1943, New York City
Genre	Folk, blues
Length	22:04
Label	Disc Records
Producer	Moses Asch
Lead Belly chronology

Negro Folk Songs (or Negroe Folksongs Sung by Lead Belly) is an album by Lead Belly, recorded in 1943 and released as an album in early 1946.^[1]^[2]^: 179

By 1943, Lead Belly had recorded and released two albums and several singles with producer Moe Asch and his label Asch Recordings. In October of this year, Lead Belly went into the studio and recorded six more sides for Asch. These songs were intended to be released as an album under Asch Recordings, but it is unlikely this was ever issued.^[3]^: 304–07 In 1945, Asch Recordings went out of business and Moe Asch partnered with Herbert Harris to form Disc Records.^[4] By the fall of 1945, Disc Records would entirely replace Asch Recordings, owning all its previously recorded material. Asch would reissue several of Lead Belly's records on this new label. These songs that were recorded years earlier may have been issued for the first time as Negro Folk Songs (catalog number Disc 660), a three-disc collection of 12" 78 rpm records.^[3]^: 226–27 The linear notes were written by Fred Ramsey. In July 1946, Studs Terkel (a Chicago disc jockey) wrote a fan letter to Asch, telling him he had received positive responses to this album, as well as other albums released by Disc Records.^[2]^{: 185, 187–88}

Multiple short songs were recorded as one continuous take and therefore have the same matrix number. Each matrix number was given its own side of a record.

In 1994, Document Records released digital remasters of these songs on the album Leadbelly: Complete Recorded Works 1939–1947 in Chronological Order, Volume 3: October 1943 to 25 April 1944, catalog number DOCD-5228. On this remaster, each of the matrix numbers were given their own track. The six tracks are meant to represent the six sides of the album.

Track listing

Disc one
No.	Title	Matrix Number	Length
1.	"Bring Me Lil Water Silvy"	SC-275	0:51
2.	"Julie Ann Johnson"	SC-275	0:41
3.	"Line 'Em"	SC-275	0:58
4.	"Whoa, Back, Buck!"	SC-275	1:26
5.	"Meeting at the Building"	SC-273	1:02
6.	"Talking, Preaching"	SC-273	0:58
7.	"We Shall Walk through the Valley"	SC-273	1:22

Disc two
No.	Title	Matrix Number	Length
1.	"Fiddler's Dram"	SC-274	0:55
2.	"Yellow Girl"	SC-274	0:54
3.	"Green Corn"	SC-274	1:23
4.	"Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea"	SC-270	1:33
5.	"Out on the Western Plains"	SC-270	1:38

Disc three
No.	Title	Matrix Number	Length
1.	"John Hardy"	SC-272	4:18
2.	"Noted Rider"	SC-271	1:29
3.	"Big Fat Woman"	SC-271	1:20
4.	"Borrow Love and Go"	SC-271	1:16

References

^ "Offbeat". Time. 47 (8): 65. February 25, 1946. ISSN 0040-781X.
^ ^a ^b Goldsmith, Peter D. (1998). Making People's Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1560988126.
^ ^a ^b Wolfe, Charles; Lornell, Kip (1992). The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060168625.
^ Place, Jeff (2015). "The Life and Legacy of Lead Belly". Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (PDF). Washington: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. p. 24. ISBN 9780970494252. UPC 093074020128.

External links

Negro Folk Songs at Discogs
Leadbelly: Complete Recorded Works 1939-1947 in Chronological Order, Volume 3: (October 1943 to 25 April 1944) at Discogs

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[1] "Offbeat". Time. 47 (8): 65. February 25, 1946. ISSN 0040-781X.

[Goldsmith-2] Goldsmith, Peter D. (1998). Making People's Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1560988126.

[Wolfe-3] Wolfe, Charles; Lornell, Kip (1992). The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060168625.

[4] Place, Jeff (2015). "The Life and Legacy of Lead Belly". Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (PDF). Washington: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. p. 24. ISBN 9780970494252. UPC 093074020128.

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v t e Lead Belly
List of recorded songs
Studio albums	Negro Sinful Songs The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs Play Parties in Song and Dance Work Songs of the U.S.A. Songs by Lead Belly Negro Folk Songs Midnight Special
Compilation albums	Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs Lead Belly Sings for Children Folkways: The Original Vision (Woody and LeadBelly) The Smithsonian Folkways Collection
Singles	"John Hardy" "Midnight Special" "Goodnight, Irene" "Take This Hammer" "Rock Island Line" "The Bourgeois Blues"
Songs	"Black Betty" "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" "Pick a Bale of Cotton" "Cotton Fields" "Boll Weevil" "Alabama Bound" "Duncan and Brady" "How Long, How Long" "Alberta" "Mr. Hitler" "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?" "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" "House of the Rising Sun" "Backwater Blues" "Vigilante Man" "Skip to My Lou" "The Blue Tailed Fly (Jimmie Crack Corn)"
Related	Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet Blind Lemon Jefferson Pat Morris Neff Leadbelly (1976 film) MTV Unplugged in New York