18. In his early teens, Leadbelly was playing concerts in Shreveport’s Red Light District
By the age of 14 Leadbelly was proving a big draw at parties around the Bowie area. At weekends, the youngster would play at ‘sukey jumps’ and ‘juke joints’, African-American country dances. Unfortunately for his concerned parents, Leadbelly was especially in demand on Fannin Street, Shreveport, a notorious red light district. But alongside the pleasure seeking and festivities lurked brutality, as is often the way with popular nightspots. Contemporary police reports describe clubs such as George Neil’s Dive as ‘peppered with bullet holes’. Some even say Leadbelly’s powerful voice came from his attempts to be heard over the melee.
For better and for worse, Fennin Street and St Paul’s Bottoms were the making of Leadbelly. Just think of the impact witnessing shootings, brawls, drunken behaviour, and sexual liberation had on the young man’s mind. Sure enough, just as his musical prowess and performance-skills improved with all the practice, so too did Leadbelly discover some of his defining interests: women, liquor, and fighting. But he simultaneously took in an eclectic variety of musical influences, and also grew to see his talent as not merely a fun hobby but his ticket out of poverty and racial segregation…