Leadbelly is one of the great musical influences of the 20th century and his work is celebrated in a this brilliant collection The Telegraph "No Lead Belly, no Beatles," George Harrison More than six decades after his death from Lou Gehrig's disease in 1949, the influence of the great blues and folk singer Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) continues to reverberate through time. Tom Waits, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Jack White are just a few of the musicians who have been deeply influenced by Lead Belly. Kurt Cobain said that he was his favourite performer, adding "Isn't he all of ours? He also had a deceptively simple way of playing his powerful twelve-string guitar, an instrument Cobain once tried to buy from Lead Belly's cousin. Some of Lead Belly's songs such as Goodnight Irene, The Rock Island Line, The Midnight Special and Pick a Bale of Cotton have become classics. The richness of his legacy is shown to it's full impressive extent in a superb 2 CD LIMITED EDITION set called Lead Belly: Masterworks Volume 1 & 2. The set includes two CDs, covering over two hours of music over 40 tracks. Sixteen of these songs are previously unreleased, and they include some wonderful rarities.