How I Met Bessie Smith

I first encountered her when i was 12 years old. My dad bought me any woman's blues double album, and it was my for my twelfth birthday. And i loved the stories that were in the blues. I started hearing bessie smith when columbia, which was the label she very first recorded,. They issued a hundred and 60 of her sides. From the time that she was very popular, the empress of the blues, till she reaches the point where she's down and out. She already knows very well that nobody knows you when you're down and out."