The Lead Belly Songbook - Lead Belly, no stranger to the blues
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Silver City Bound
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Wow.. If you ever wondered whether Lead Belly was a guitar and song writing master, this song will put all doubts to rest. Do not expect to be able to play this song in one sitting. As Alvin Hart says "Lead Belly is a time consuming concept". One of the oddest aspects of this song is the heavily syncopated and sparse change to the "bridge" or "B" part. Mark Patton and Bernie Mulleda who helped me with this transcription have said that the guitar work sounds like an entire Dixieland band.
Lead Belly made a number of songs featuring Blind Lemon as a central character. Almost every blues musician alive from the 1920's to the 1960's lays claim to having been a friend or partner to Blind Lemon. I believe that few were. How much time Lead Belly spent with Blind Lemon will never be known. As all musicians who ever heard his recordings, Lead Belly stood in awe of his ability.
One of the more telling features of Lead Belly's ability to fully understand and define the pulse of American music comes in this fact: He was there when Blind Lemon was making up his repertoire which became the basis of guitar based blues music, and he was there when Woody Guthrie was learning and developing his own abilities and style which became the basis of most singer/songwriter styles now used by so many musicians. His being there for Blind Lemon, and the blues and Woody Guthrie and folk music was no coincidence. Huddie has played a huge part in the formation of both styles.
I think Lead Belly composed this song very late in life. In 1947, at Moses Asch studios, he recorded what would be the "B" part or the "Bridge" of the song. This recording appears on Smithsonian/Folkways CD 40044 as Blind Lemon #26. .........Click here to listen to this recording of Blind Lemon.
There are no other Lead Belly recordings that I have heard of Silver City Bound except the one on the Last Sessions which was recorded October, 1948. Click here to listen to the definitive Lead Belly's "Silver City Bound" from Last Sessions CD
Paul Geremia played Silver City Bound and recorded it about 1986 and it appeared on his LP My Kinda Place which has been re-issued on CD Flying Fish FF 70395. Click here to listen to Paul Geremia play Siver City Bound.
My recording of Silver City Bound is under my CD pages. Click here.
Hi-Tide Harris and Art Evans sing on this version of Silver City Bound which appeared on the movie Leadbelly and its soundtrack. Guitar work is by Dick Rosmini on 12-string guitar and David Cohen on 6-string guitar. This version is not as true to the original song, especially in the guitar work, as Paul Geremia's version. However, it shows that you don't have to play like Lead Belly, to play a Lead Belly song. The song works quite well.