0
Hally Wood
Hally Wood
American singer
1
Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger
American singer
2
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
American music historian, field collector, producer and filmmaker
3
Son House
Son House
American blues singer and guitarist
4
Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell
Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist
5
Bob Kirkpatrick
Bob Kirkpatrick
American Texas blues guitarist, singer and songwriter
6
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy
American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist
7
Brownie McGhee
Brownie McGhee
American folk-blues singer and guitarist
8
Elizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth Cotten
American blues and folk musician, singer and songwriter
9
Lightnin' Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins
American country blues singer, songwriter and guitarist
10
Lonnie Johnson
Lonnie Johnson
musician from the USA
11
Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
American singer-songwriter and folk musician
12
Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
American folk singer
13
Victoria Spivey
Victoria Spivey
American blues singer and songwriter
14
Hobart Smith
Hobart Smith
American musician
15
Mike Ledbetter
Mike Ledbetter
American blues singer and guitarist
16
Guy Carawan
Guy Carawan
American musician and musicologist
17
Samuel Charters
Samuel Charters
American music historian and musician
18
Cisco Houston
Cisco Houston
American musician (1918-1961)
19
Memphis Slim
Memphis Slim
American recording artist; blues pianist, singer, and composer
Intro
American folk and blues musician
Awards Received
Grammy Hall of Fame

Huddie William Ledbetter (/ˈhjuːdi/; January 23, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer, musician, and songwriter notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced, including his renditions of "In The Pines", "Goodnight, Irene", "Midnight Special", "Cotton Fields", and "Boll Weevil".

Lead Belly usually played a twelve-string guitar, but he also played the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, and windjammer. In some of his recordings, he sang while clapping his hands or stomping his foot.

Lead Belly's songs covered a wide range of genres and topics including gospel music; blues about women, liquor, prison life, and racism; and folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding, and dancing. He also wrote songs about people in the news, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, Jack Johnson, the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes. Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Though many releases credit him as "Leadbelly", he himself wrote it as "Lead Belly", which is also the spelling on his tombstone and the spelling used by the Lead Belly Foundation.