'' The Smithsonian Folkways Collection '' is a career-spanning box set of recordings by American folk and blues singer Lead Belly . It was released in 2015 by Smithsonian Folkways . The box-set is a 5-CD collection featuring five hours of music , with 16 previously unreleased tracks , and a 140-page , large-format book . It covers a range of styles and themes including many topical songs about world events and cultural figures . Songs about fellow blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson , a tribute to Hollywood actress Jean Harlow after her death and " Princess Elizabeth " about Elizabeth II , then a 21-year-old princess , in tribute to her wedding to Philip Mountbatten . Lead Belly documents the Jim Crow South with the song " Jim Crow Blues " . There are songs on the Scottsboro Boys , the Hindenburg disaster and " Hitler Song ( Mr Hitler ) " about Adolf Hitler . The compilation also includes songs titled after the Governor of Texas Pat Morris Neff and Governor of Louisiana Oscar K. Allen
Hindenburg disaster
Hindenburg disaster
The Smithsonian Folkways Collection