Kid Bailey (Date of birth unknown - after 1960) was a

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Delta bluesman. His one known

recording session The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance. Studio cast recordings In the case of Broadway m ...

occurred on September 25, 1929, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. Little is known about Bailey. His voice had a distinctly coarse yet youthful quality. Two of his recordings have survived: "Rowdy Blues" and "Mississippi Bottom Blues". In most digital releases, the tracks are attributed to Willie Brown yet are evidently the same artist credited as Kid Bailey on the original 78-rpm recordings. It has been remarked that "Although it's almost a cliché to say this about a blues musician from the American South, Kid Bailey was one of the most enigmatic musicians of the era." There has been some speculation that Kid Bailey was a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of the blues singer Willie Brown. Bailey's songs have been

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

by Ian A. Anderson,

Rory Block Aurora "Rory" Block (born November 6, 1949, in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American blues guitarist and singer, a notable exponent of the country blues style. Career Aurora Block was born in Princeton and grew up in Manhattan. Her father, Allan ...

, Doug Cox, the Be Good Tanyas, and Thomasina Winslow with Nick Katzman. His song "Rowdy Blues" is included on the compilation album ''Masters of the Delta Blues: The Friends of Charlie Patton'', released by

Yazoo Records Yazoo Records is an American record label founded in the mid-1960s by Nick Perls. It specializes in early American blues, country, jazz, and other rural American genres collectively known as roots music. History The first five releases (L 10 ...

References

External links

Illustrated Kid Bailey discography
Year of birth missing Year of death missing 20th-century African-American male singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Country blues musicians African-American guitarists {{R&Bsoul-bio-stub