Huddie William Ledbetter:
Singer, Songwriter, Murderer;
“King of the 12-String Guitar Players of the World”

Huddie William Ledbetter, better known as “Lead Belly,” got a bum deal. Was he justly sentenced to prison for murder? Twice? Was he exploited by the man who discovered him? Did he have to share credit for writing the song that became the number one hit of 1950!

This program includes a series of true stories about Lead Belly’s life:

• Why he chose to play the 12-string guitar
• The events that led to his two convictions for murder
• How his reputation as a prison songster led to his pardon by the governor
• How he was discovered by John and Alan Lomax
• How he contributed to the folk music revival and the advent of rock and roll
• How his signature song—the song he used to both open and close his performances—became the most popular song of 1950, and why it is still sung today at soccer games all across Europe

These stories are interspersed with songs such as The Midnight Special, Easy Rider, John Hardy, We’re in the Same Boat Brother, and Goodnight Irene.

Question: what do America's most iconic anthems such as “Yankee Doodle,” “God Bless America,” “This Land is Your Land,” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” all have in common?

Answer: they all originated in New York State! But what's even more interesting are the stories behind their creation and popularization, which are largely unknown generations later. From the American Revolution to the World Wars — and struggles in between — it's time to uncover their little-known stories including answers to some of these anthems' biggest mysteries:

• Who was Yankee Doodle, why he "stuck a feather in his cap," and "called it macaroni"
• How a British song that derided the colonial Americans became our first patriotic song
• The story of Irving Berlin's resuscitation of “God Bless America” twenty years after he rejected it, and what he had to change so it could become the #1 hit
• Guthrie's parody of “God Bless America,” originally entitled “God Blessed America for Me” (today known as “This Land is your Land”) and how it more accurately portrayed the country as he saw it
• A discussion of the most popular female advertising icon in the early 20th century, Phoebe Snow, and how she helped popularize "suffrage's secret song"
• The surprising role of the 1908 song, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” in the struggle to gain “votes for women”