His underrated guitar playing influenced everyone from the Beatles to Nirvana – here's how Lead Belly used his 12-string skills to play his way out of prison

Lead Belly, pictured at a recording session in the 1940s

To modern audiences, Huddie Ledbetter (aka Lead Belly) is a bit of a mythical figure, probably best-known for a performance that occurred almost half a century after his death.

Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was so moved by the power of Lead Belly's rendition of the folk song, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, that he chose to cover the tune with his band as the closing number of their now-legendary MTV Unplugged set.