Piece image

Midnight Special

Series: Blues Routes
From: Thom Butler
Length: 00:05:30

The first in our daily series of musical trips to the Mississippi Delta. We take a ride with Huddy Ledbetter (and a few others) on the Midnight Special. Read the full description.

Leadbelly_old_small It's a song that everybody knows... but not everybody knows the story behind it. In our first installment of Blues Routes - Your Daily Trip to the Delta, we take a ride on the Midnight Special and find out a lot about Leadbelly along the way.

To hear the full audio, sign up for a free PRX account or log in.

More from Thom Butler

Piece image

Sonny Boy Williamson - Good Mornin' Little School Girl (00:05:36)
From: Thom Butler

The Sonny Boy Williamson classic, Good Morning Little School Girl is one of the most recorded blues tunes in history, but it’s just one of more than 120 sides that John Lee ...
Piece image

Blind Willy Johnson - extended version (00:09:26)
From: Thom Butler

In time for Holy Week, we open with a piece on Blind Willy Johnson, a Texas street preacher who created the quintessential Good Friday blues gospel composition, Dark Was The ...
Piece image

Blind Willy Johnson (00:07:28)
From: Thom Butler

In time for Holy Week, we open with a piece on Blind Willy Johnson, a Texas street preacher who created the quintessential Good Friday blues gospel composition, Dark Was The ...
Piece image

How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live? (00:07:28)
From: Thom Butler

We end our first week with a special once in a lifetime performance by Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band from the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Hetitage Festival.
Piece image

Strange Fruit (00:07:30)
From: Thom Butler

For our fourth show we take on one of the most difficult topics to ever be expressed in popular music. Racial relations... and the ugly history of lynching.
Piece image

Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? - Extended version (00:10:04)
From: Thom Butler

In our third show we get to listen to a collection of wonderful treatments of one of the all time great sugar sticks of popular music, Louie Jordan's "Is You Is Or Is You ...
Piece image

Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? (00:07:09)
From: Thom Butler

In our third show we get to listen to a collection of wonderful treatments of one of the all time great sugar sticks of popular music, Louie Jordan's "Is You Is Or Is You ...
Piece image

Gate-American Music Texas Style (extended show) (00:10:25)
From: Thom Butler

This is the extended version of our second show which features a look at the man that Frank Zappa called his all-time favorite guitar player, Clarence Gatemouth Brown.
Piece image

Gate - American Music... Texas Style (00:07:26)
From: Thom Butler

Our second show features a look at the man that Frank Zappa called his all-time favorite guitar player, Clarence Gatemouth Brown.
Piece image

Extra Innings#5 - Dallas Braden's Present to Grandma (00:03:57)
From: Thom Butler

On Mother's Day 2010, in front of a crowd of 12,227 fans and one very proud and happy gramma, Dallas Braden pitched A PERFECT GAME!

Piece Description

It's a song that everybody knows... but not everybody knows the story behind it. In our first installment of Blues Routes - Your Daily Trip to the Delta, we take a ride on the Midnight Special and find out a lot about Leadbelly along the way.

Timing and Cues

This piece (and all shows in the daily Blues Routes series) fit the 7:45 Segment B for ATC and ME. A 10:30 extended version of the piece is also available.

Musical Works

Title Artist Album Label Year Length
Midnight Special Leadbelly 00:00
Midnight Special Creedence Clearwater Revival 00:00
Midnight Special Johnny Rivers 00:00
Midnight Special Woody guthrie 00:00
Midnight Special Odetta 00:00
Goodnight Irene Leadbelly 00:00

Related Website

http://bluesroutes.com