Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster — The Kennedy Center

On the evening of April 25, 2015, the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. filled with music that Huddie Ledbetter had written, shaped, or carried — performed by some of the most significant voices in American roots music.

Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster was a one-night-only event produced by the Kennedy Center in collaboration with the GRAMMY Museum, marking the 125th anniversary of Huddie’s birth. It was one of the most significant cultural tributes to his legacy ever assembled on a single stage.

Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and Buddy Miller with Viktor Krauss headlined the evening. Lucinda Williams, Valerie June, Shannon McNally, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Billy Hector, Josh White Jr., and Dan Zanes rounded out a lineup that crossed every boundary of genre and generation — a living demonstration of exactly how wide Lead Belly’s reach had always been. Dom Flemons served as host for the evening.

The performances were as varied as the artists themselves. Valerie June delivered a spellbinding a cappella version of “Ain’t Goin’ Down to the Well No More.” Alvin Youngblood Hart, who called himself a member of what he named “The Cult of Lead Belly,” electrified the crowd with “Silver City Bound” and “Alberta.” Josh White Jr. — whose father performed alongside Lead Belly in the New York folk scene — brought the house to its feet with “House of the Rising Sun.” It was a standing ovation earned, and he nearly moved himself to tears in the earning of it.

Lucinda Williams spoke from the stage about what made Lead Belly’s songs endure. The thing, she said, was that you could interpret them in different ways. That was not an accident. Huddie wrote music that was built to travel — across time, across genre, across hands and voices he would never live to hear.

The Kennedy Center’s Vice President for Community Engagement noted that the evening was particularly meaningful given Huddie’s deep connection to Washington, D.C. — where he had collaborated extensively with Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress, and where his political songs like “The Bourgeois Blues” had been recorded after experiences of racism in the city itself.

Dom Flemons said it simply: “The strength is always the thing that I’ve loved about Lead Belly’s art. The strength of his songs and performance, and the strength of him as a person.”

That strength filled the Kennedy Center that night. It still does.

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SOURCES

“Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster.” GRAMMY Museum, grammymuseum.org/event/lead-belly-at-125-a-tribute-to-an-american-songster/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2026.

Dresser, Michael. “Lead Belly Tribute Brings Stars, Crowd, Country Music Roots.” The Washington Times, 27 Apr. 2015, washingtontimes.com.

“Robert Plant, Alison Krauss Honor Folk Great Lead Belly.” Rolling Stone, rollingstone.com/music/music-country/robert-plant-alison-krauss-honor-folk-great-lead-belly-57406/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2026.

“Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster.” The Washington Post, 23 Apr. 2015, washingtonpost.com.

“Lead Belly at 125: A Kennedy Center Salute to American Blues and Folk.” The Georgetowner, 28 Apr. 2015, georgetowner.com.