Biography
While employed by John Lomax as both driver and part-time talent scout, Leadbelly encountered the singer and fiddler known as Blind Pete together with guitarist George Ryan during 1934 in Little Rock, AR. Eight tracks performed by this duo were documented by Lomax on September 27, 1934, in that city, destined for the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song. That day's recordings featured Blind Pete's wonderfully loose and wild fiddle style on the marvelous instrumental "Black Bayou Ain't Got No Bottom" and also encompassed a couple takes of Charley Patton's "Banty Rooster."