Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949) was a man so full of life he could only be felled by fate. His was one of the loudest voices on record and his playing of the twelve-string guitar belied his physical strength. Here was a man who had worked for years on prison gangs. Years later it was easy for him to dip into this wellspring of stamina to perform for stupefied middle-class white audiences. He is best remembered for a body of songs that he discovered, adapted or wrote, including "Goodnight Irene", "Rock Island Line", "Midnight Special" and "Cotton Fields". But he was also an early example of a folksinger whose background had brought him into direct contact with the oral tradition by which folk music was handed down. He is usually viewed as a blues singer, but blues (a musical form he actually predated) was only one of the styles that informed his music. He was a profound influence on folk performers of the 1940s such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, who in turn influenced the folk revival, the UK 'skiffle' movement of the '50s, and the development of rock music from the 1960s onward, which made his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 wholly appropriate. This 4CD, 96 track set features all of his most important recordings, from early field recordings made by John & Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress, through a variety of studio sessions in different locations to a performance from his last major concert at the University of Texas.