Like many things in Lead Belly's life, this book probably came a little too late.

Lead Belly (the way Huddie Ledbetter preferred to spell his nickname) was a genuinely seminal force in American folk music, but that was only partially realized while he was alive -- it wasn't until half a year after he died that his song "Goodnight Irene" was made into a megahit by The Weavers and his name became known to a wider community. There are many recordings of Lead Belly, but there wasn't an attempt to really study him comprehensively in his lifetime.

This posthumous book tries to help fill the gap. And if all you want is words and music of a lot of Lead Belly songs, it should serve your needs well.

Where it falls down is in the notes. Co-author Alan Lomax was one of America's greatest folk music scholars -- but he had a tendency (derived from his father, and found in books other than this one) to substitute cutesy anecdotes for actual information. Worse, the Lomaxes had been responsible for getting Lead Belly out of prison -- and they seem to have had a rather superior attitude toward their find, which they showed by claiming arrangement, or even co-authorship, credits on Lead Belly's songs. What odds, in a case like that, that they will tell the full story of its background?

In addition to the songs, the book contains several short essays and tributes to Lead Belly, which are interesting and information -- but they don't add up to a full biography. It's another example of the "not quite"-ness of this book.

If any of those things matter to you, this may not be the ideal book for you. On the other hand, there is no other book with so much Lead Belly influence. So, if you are a Lead Belly fan, odds are that this is the book for you. ( )