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Brand to sing praises of friend Lead Belly
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Brand to sing praises of friend Lead Belly
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter

Oscar Brand knows just about everybody.

Woody, Bobby, Pete and Phil (aka Guthrie, Dylan, Seeger and Ochs) all appeared on stage with him and on his long-running New York radio show "Folk-Song Festival," which started in 1945 and still airs today, 59 years later.

He's also a powerful musical talent in his own right.

In 2002, Brand, 84, released his 100th album, "Wild Blue Yonder Over Vietnam."

He has produced, written and served as host of hundreds of television shows, documentaries and Broadway musicals, including "A Joyful Noise" and "The Education of Hyman Kaplan." He has written songs for the films "Sybil," "The Long Riders" and "The Blue Chips."

Brand was even part of the board that created "Sesame Street." He argued so forcefully that children's entertainment did not have to be insultingly simple, a character was named in his honor: Oscar the Grouch.

But when Brand performs Friday at the Beachland Ballroom with Josh White Jr., it will be in tribute to another friend, the long-gone Lead Belly. The show is part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's ninth annual American Music Masters series, "Shine a Light on Me: The Life and Music of Lead Belly."

"There are very few people left alive who knew Lead Belly as a person," Brand said from his home in Long Island, N.Y. "Like Woody, he was an icon. But I can't help but think of him as a friend."

Lead Belly was no saint, said Brand. He had a difficult life that included a prison sentence for murder during a bar fight.

"People said he was a killer, but he said it happened in self-defense; he was fighting for his life," Brand said.

Lead Belly was in the declining years of his life when Brand met him in the early 1940s.

"I was a skinny kid and not in his league, but then no one could play like him," he said.

"I'd go out on tour with him, play the opening act for his shows, but really I was there to help him around. There were a lot of restaurants and stores that would not serve him, and I could get him food and groceries."

Brand said he keenly remembers the time he accompanied Lead Belly to Chicago in the early 1940s and was shocked at the reception.

"The black people from Chicago did not take kindly to Lead Belly," he said. "They saw themselves as having left that kind of blues music back in the South. They were playing jazz, and here comes this guy dredging up the old music they left behind."

Lead Belly died in December 1949, but earlier that year, Brand did something that still makes him smile: an all-star tribute to Lead Belly at Carnegie Hall.

"He had Lou Gehrig's disease and he was very proud," Brand said. "He could still play and sing, but he didn't want people to see his walk. There were a whole bunch of us performing that night, so at the midpoint I told the audience to leave for 15 minutes.

"The hall was in darkness as Pete Seeger and John Cohen carried Lead Belly out onto the stage and sat him in a chair," said Brand. "My idea was to have the whole room in darkness, then shine a pin spotlight on Lead Belly's face. That's how the people saw him, just part of him lit up and singing. Then the spotlight opened up to show his hands and guitars, and he played the most wonderful 45 minutes I've ever seen."

It was Lead Belly's last performance.

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Light shines on Lead Belly during stellar tribute concert
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
John Soeder
Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic

What do classic-rocker Robert Plant, the Chicano roots-rock band Los Lobos and neo-bluegrass singer-fiddler Alison Krauss have in common?

Not much, on the face of it - which is why it was such a thrill to see them sharing the stage Sunday night at Severance Hall for a salute to the late Lead Belly.

The singer-guitarist was "one of the giants of American popular music," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

The stellar tribute concert put an exclamation point on the ninth annual American Music Masters series, presented by the Rock Hall and Case Western Reserve University.

Lead Belly (real name: Huddie Ledbetter) died in 1949. By his own estimate, the singer-guitarist had a repertoire of 500 songs encompassing a range of styles, from folk to children's music to blues.

"This is a great way of saying some kind of protracted thank you for all those great songs," Plant said.

The ex-Led Zeppelin frontman was at the center of some of the evening's greatest moments, including a mesmerizing rendition of "In the Pines," done as a duet with Krauss.

Plant and Krauss teamed up with Los Lobos for "Pretty Little Girl With the Red Dress On," with Plant sideman Justin Adams coaxing exotic riffs from a tahardent, an African lute. The cross-cultural hootenanny had 2,000-plus concertgoers clapping along enthusiastically.

Backed by the Tarbox Ramblers and the Cleveland Four gospel quartet (Carlton Fellows, James Houston, Kennedy Jones and Reginald Lewis), Plant also did right by "Alabama Bound," one of many traditional tunes popularized by Lead Belly.

The show got off to a shaky start with a rambling introductory speech by Harry Belafonte.

Some two hours later, the gig ended abruptly after Plant and Los Lobos conspired on a plaster-rattling "Gallows Pole." A planned all-star finale failed to materialize.

Despite the venue's storied acoustics, the sound quality was subpar at times. The ever-changing array of musicians onstage presumably didn't make it easy to maintain a perfect mix.

Nonetheless, those minor shortcomings were offset by a series of once-in-a-lifetime performances, including veteran folk-singer Odetta's resounding version of "You Don't Know My Mind," a fun romp through "Rock Island Line" by singer-songwriter John Hiatt, and Los Lobos' rambunctious take on "Bottle Up and Go."

Hiatt and Los Lobos joined forces, too, for a transcendent "Midnight Special."

Perhaps the night's most pleasant surprise was wayward punk Jon Langford, who delivered a politically charged kick in the pants to the tune of "Bourgeois Blues."

Lead Belly's love for the blues was further represented by hometown hero Robert Lockwood Jr.'s masterful "Easy Rider" (aka "See See Rider") and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, accompanied by Dan Zanes & Friends for a boogie-style "4, 5 and 9."

Also making appearances were folkies Oscar Brand and Josh White Jr., as well as Lead Belly's niece, Queen "Tiny" Robinson.

"This is one of the highlights of my life," roots-rocker Dave Alvin said before he dusted off "New Orleans (The Rising Sun Blues)."

He no doubt echoed the sentiments of many others on the bill - and in the audience.

In shining a light on Lead Belly, the Rock Hall's signature local event basked triumphantly in the afterglow.