In the Pines

In 1930, Lomax met Lead Belly, a hard prison blues and folk singer, serving time in Angola Prison Farm for killing a man in a knife fight. Before Angola he had worked on chain gangs and done time in Sugerland. He knew all the prison songs and played them for Lomax - Black Betty, Midnight Special and House of the Rising Sun.

Despite his rough ways, Lead Belly was a virtuous musician on the twelve string guitar. Lomax recorded hundreds of his songs, preserving much of what would become the American folk and blues canon. Based on those recordings Lomax also negotiated Lead Belly's release with the Governor Louisiana.

Here is a traditional dark Southern Appalachian folk song:

In the Pines