Blind Pete & Partner

Leadbelly actually discovered singer and fiddler Blind Pete and his guitarist partner, George Ryan, in Little Rock, AR, in 1934, while serving as a driver and sometimes talent scout for John Lomax. Lomax recorded eight tracks by the duo in Little Rock on September 27, 1934, for the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song. Blind Pete's fiddle style was wonderfully loose and wild, and the pair recorded a marvelous instrumental that day called "Black Bayou Ain't Got No Bottom," as well as a couple takes of Charley Patton's "Banty Rooster." ~ Steve Leggett