Huddie William “Lead Belly” Ledbetter Statue

Huddie «Lead Belly» Lebdetter was hardcore street, before there was hardcore… or really even much of a street. Lead Belly, twice sent down to various state prisons for murder or attempted acts thereof, plucked a guitar and did it well, when he wasn’t plucking his adversaries with a sharp blade, also well. A trigger finger, and a hair trigger temper it turns out, was equally as efficient when it came to strumming a twelve string named Stella. Ledbetter also had a posthumously heavy-​handed influence over three of rock n’ roll’s biggest rock Gods: Kurt Cobain (born 1967-​Aberdeen, Washington), Robert Plant (born 1948-​West Bromich, United Kingdom), and Jack White (born 1975-​Detroit, Michigan). Dates and places of birth displayed to show the generational as well as geographical range, distances and differences of these famous musicians, and yet it was the music of Lead Belly out of Mooringsport, Louisiana that somehow found its’ way into the homes and hearts of these one-​time garage rockers on their catapult to rock super-​stardom.
Cobain held Lead Belly in such high esteem that he covered one of his songs, with his band Nirvana, in one of their last live performances, which was also recorded, and certified five times over platinum, «MTV Unplugged In New York» The Lead Belly song, «Where Did You Sleep Last Night?» is song number 14 on the set list, and was also the last song played in this performance. It was one of the last songs, if not the last song ever played live by Cobain before his own untimely death. Robert Plant, the famous front man of the infamous Led Zeppelin, placed Lead Belly on as high of a pedestal, as any other musician or historian. So much so, that Plant, when playing a solo gig in Shreveport on his Now and Zen tour, made the trip in person to Lead Belly’s grave site in Mooringsport to pay his final respects.
Jack White, just at the very moment he adorned the cover of Rolling Stone, played a sold out concert on his 2014 Lazaretto Tour at the famed Municipal Auditorium in downtown Shreveport. White, the former lead singer of The White Stripes, and founding member of The Dead Weather, and The Raconteurs, opened his Shreveport show with a video/​audio montage of Lead Belly himself, singing his own songs and performing. Between songs of his own live performance, White often spoke fondly and respectfully of Lead Belly. He even closed the show, on his final encore, to a fantastic cover of Lead Belly’s, «Goodnight, Irene»,
The Lead Belly statue, located on Texas Street in downtown Shreveport, directly in front of the downtown branch of the Shreve Memorial Library, does not appear to be of scale. I’m not certain of Lead Belly’s height and weight, and though his legendary status may make him seem larger than life, the statue, though impressive, doesn’t appear to exactly measure up to real-​life specifications. If they do, then Lead Belly is much smaller than I would’ve imagined him in life. That being said, the statue is still very much worth visiting and posting selfies with and such.
The statue as you see it, is pointing. It is pointing to Ledbetter Heights (Formerly St. Paul’s Bottoms neighborhood-Shreveport’s Red Light District, and Fannin Street) This is where Lead Belly honed his skills as a guitar virtuoso and musician, vocalist. Another famed Shreveport blues musician, married to Mel Gibson’s only daughter-​as a point of reference, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, released his first major studio album at the age of 18, the name of the album? Ledbetter Heights.
The infamous song «Black Betty» covered and modernized with hard and unforgiving electric guitar riffs that ricocheted throughout the end of the 1970’s and beyond was covered by a band called Ram Jam in 1977. Lead Belly is the author and original performer of this song, which is arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, rock songs of the 1970’s.
The Lead Belly statue is open 24÷7÷365 and is free to the public. Other statues of other noted local musicians such as Elvis Presley and Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee James Burton can be found in front of Municipal Auditorium on Elvis Presley Avenue!