466 Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter 1889-1949) “Rock Island Line” 1937

Leadbelly learned the song while visiting prisoners at the Cummins Prison Farm in Arkansas and made it a staple of his performing repertoire. “So eager were they to hear and see Leadbelly that at times some stood on the shoulders of others. When the twanging of his guitar strings rang out, supporting his rich booming voice, silence fell in the rows of cells suddenly and completely…For the moment Leadbelly’s ‘sinful songs’ became more powerful than the ‘spirituals’” (Charles Wolfe, Kip Lornell, The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, 1992). 

Leadbelly “Rock Island Line”