Phil Wiggins and Mark Puryear - "The Midnight Special" [Live at Smithsonian Folkways | June 2015]

GRAMMY nominee Phil Wiggins and Smithsonian Research Associate Mark Puryear play "The Midnight Special," an American standard popularized by music icon Lead Belly. The two got together in the Rinzler Archives to discuss the release of 'Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection,' the 108-track, 140-page box set honoring Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter.

'Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection' available February 24, 2015, on CD Box Set and Digital.

Stream/download/purchase:
Smithsonian Folkways: http://www.folkways.si.edu/leadbelly
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6X1f7M...

'Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection,' the first career-spanning box set dedicated to the American music icon, features 5 hours of music with 16 unreleased tracks. Lead Belly is “the hard name of a harder man,” said Woody Guthrie of his friend and fellow American music icon who was born Huddie Ledbetter (c. 1888–1949). From the swamplands of Louisiana, the prisons of Texas, and the streets of New York City, Lead Belly and his music became cornerstones of American folk music and touchstones of African American cultural legacy.

With his 12-string Stella guitar, he sang out a cornucopia of songs that included his classics “The Midnight Special,” “Irene,” “The Bourgeois Blues,” and many more, which in turn have been covered by musical notables such as the Beach Boys, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison, Nirvana, Odetta, Little Richard, Pete Seeger, Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits. 'Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection' brings us the story of the man as well as the musician.

Lead Belly: http://www.leadbelly.com
Facebook:   / leadbellyofficial  
Twitter:   / leadbellyblues  

Phil Wiggins: https://www.philwiggins.com

Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu
Facebook:   / smithsonianfolkwaysrecordings  
Twitter:   / folkways  
Instagram:   / smithsonianfolkways  

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