Ledbetter & his Best Bet profile picture

Ledbetter & his Best Bet

If your life is easy, God gave up on you

About Me

San Francisco based Ledbetter spins his own strange flavor of Freak/Carnival/Americana/Folk played with equally anomalous showmanship. Comparisons often lead to one to believe that if Tom Waits & Jacques Brel had taken it upon themselves, one day in 1969, to go on a bender and corrupt as many folk singers of the era as intoxicatingly possible, Ledbetter might very well be the love-child of their crusade.Ledbetter is a multi-instrumentalist with training in musical theater and the ninja arts under Sensi Yoshi McTarnahan at the Conservatoire for Drama & Ninpo in Southern Sri Lanka. Exercising great discipline, Ledbetter never combines the two arts even when confronted with an uncouth audience member talking during his set. He tames his fists of fury and drowns the conversation with the ancient Loud Singning Monkey technique.In all seriousness, Ledbetter is a multi-instrumentalist and was trained in musical theater. He does not have ninja training . . . yet. His past roles include: “Emcee” in Cabaret, “Conrad Birdie” in Bye, Bye, Birdie, and “The Cowardly Lion” in Wizard of Oz. “ He was also a member of the Imagination Central traveling children’s theater troupe.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/2/2005
Band Website: jbledbetter.com
Band Members: Ledbetter - Guitar, Vocals, Beatbox/Vocal percussion, Mouth-horns, etc.

Steve Sparapani - Cello, Vocals

Ari Messer - Mandolin, Guitar

Brian Davis - Bass, Vocals

Lars Gustafson - Backing Vocals, Percussion.
Influences: Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Joni Mitchel, Bjork, Sufjan Stevens, Billy Naer Show, Leonard Cohen, will oldham, bob dylan, johnny cash, belle and sebastian, magnetic fields, sea and cake, flaming lips, Built to Spill, iron and wine, Neutral Milk Hotel, et al.
Sounds Like: You tell me. . .
Record Label: none as of yet.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Irish Quote

I found this on a friends blog and fell in love with it: "Being Irish, I have an abiding sense of tragedy which sustains me through temporary periods of joy." W.B. Yeats
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:12:00 PST

We're a Top Pick in the SF Weekly

Bastard Sons of Huddie do MangumBy Hiya SwanhuyserIt's a fine, if somewhat P.T. Barnum-ish, idea to take an underappreciated genius of an indie-rock album and indulge yourself in recreating the whole ...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Tue, 08 May 2007 03:59:00 PST

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

When I first listened to Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", I was instantly hooked. It was, by far, one of the most naked & honest records I'd come across... that was not done by To...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:45:00 PST

New Songs from Silverfish in the Kitchen Radio Show

Greetings, I've just posted 4 new songs from our appearance on Silverfish in the Kitchen (KZSC Santa Cruz). There was a horrible buzz in the recording of the show... I did my best to filter it out.The...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 03:26:00 PST

Cinemasports & Noisepop

The Noise Pop Film Festival and Cinemasports.com presented a one-day music video competition open to local musicians, filmmakers, and actors. Teams have 10 hours to shoot a music video with 3 secret i...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:43:00 PST

New General Fuzz Album

Hey all,My friend just released his 4th album... it's some gooooooooooooooood stuff.Makes your soul melt into a mellow goo puddle.The album is a collaboration with tons of musicians, include Steve Spa...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Thu, 01 Mar 2007 01:28:00 PST

Slow start to the New Year....

Howdy ho, This year is starting out kind of slow on the musical front. It should be driving me bonkers... It would be if I didn't have a million other things swimming around my head & heart. Too many ...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:35:00 PST

Celebrity Look-a-like

http://www.myheritage.com...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:57:00 PST

Ledbetter featured on "Silverfish in the Kitchen Live 2006"

Check it out, yo. I've been added on a compilation CD of live radio performances from the Silverfish in the Kitchen show.It's a great indie Americana show on KZSC Santa Cruz, 88.1fm every Friday night...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:22:00 PST

Jazz & Poetry - One Year Old & Awards

The Word Party's Jazz & Poetry night turned one year old a while back. Here's a great article about the birthday bash.I missed the celebration, unfortunately. But I just started going to the tuesday n...
Posted by Ledbetter & his Best Bet on Thu, 07 Sep 2006 10:25:00 PST