Beauford and Bessie

Beauford loved the blues, and he particularly loved the blues as sung by Bessie Smith.

Bessie Smith (1936) by Carl Van Vechten

Biographer David Leeming writes that Beauford "copied blues songs of love, ... which he would sing when he was alone at night, sometimes with Bessie Smith on the phonograph."

In perusing one of the sketchbooks that is part of the Beauford Delaney archive at UTKnoxville, I found the lyrics to which Leeming refers.

I've embedded YouTube videos of these songs below.

Gimme a Pigfoot

Do Your Duty


Down in the Dumps


Empty Bed Blues


Young Woman's Blues