Leadbelly.
I'll leave the full bio up to Wikipedia but just mention that he was born somewhere around 1888, spent a bunch of time in and out of jails before being "discovered" there by national folklorist John Lomax who took him to New York to perform after he got out. He recorded from 1933 until his death in 1949, and he was (is) known as the greatest rememberer and performer of American folk by everyone from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to Kurt Cobain and Jack White. He was inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Today's little treasure comes from an LP called Good Mornin' Blues: Early Leadbelly. Side A was recorded in June 1940 in a New York studio with Woody Guthrie there narrating between songs. Despite being a walking folk song library, Side A is all Leadbelly originals. Songs like Worried Blues and Good Mornin' Blues are a couple of examples that pit his own sentimental songwriting against the images mustered by Lomax and booking agents eager to sell his cotton-pickin' ramblin'-gamblin' knife-fightin' chain-gang-escapin' past to the New Yorkers who found it so exotic. His spoken word introduction for Good Mornin' Blues is a great simple explanation of what depression is and how to deal with it:
"You lay down some nights and you turn from one side of the bed to the other, all night long. It's not too cold in that bed, and it ain't too hot. What's the matter? The blues has got ya. When you sit up on the side of your bed soon in the morning, you may have a mother and a father, a sister and a brother around, but you don't want no talk out of 'em. They ain't done you nothin' and you ain't done them nothin'. But what's the matter? The blues has got ya. When you get up and put your feet under the table, you look down at your plate you got everything you want to eat. Well you get up; you walk away and you shake your head. You say, "Lord have mercy! I can't eat and I can't sleep!" What's the matter? The blues has got ya. They wanna talk to ya! You got to talk to 'em and tell 'em somethin'. And here's what you got to tell 'em: "Good mornin' blues! Blues, how do you do?"
It's all one continuous track on the record, so that's how I've ripped it. Enjoy!
Side A - Narrated by Woody Guthrie (Download)
1. I Ain't Going Down
2. Went Out On The Mountain
3. Whoa Back
4. Worried Blues
5. Good Mornin' Blues
6. You Can't Lose Me Charlie
7. Boll Weevil
...and you thought this was folksy:
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