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Website
PBS

Pbs: American Roots Music

For Students 9th - 10th
If teaching a unit about the history of popular music in America, this PBS web site supporting their four-part TV broadcast of a few years ago would make a great resource. Includes lesson plans and oral histories too.
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Website
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Lead Belly

For Students 9th - 10th
From Lead Belly's posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. A biography, timeline, audio clips, and the transcript of Pete Seeger's speech inducting Lead Belly into the Hall of Fame.
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Handout
Wikimedia

Wikipedia: Lead Belly

For Students 9th - 10th
Biography of influential blues musician Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter.
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Handout
Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia Britannica: Leadbelly

For Students 9th - 10th
This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Leadbelly, an American folk-blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose ability to perform a vast repertoire of songs, in conjunction with his notoriously violent life, made him a legend.