Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 25, 2026

Kid Bailey

Kid Bailey was a Mississippi Delta bluesman. His one known recording session occurred on September 25, 1929, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Last revised
Jun 25, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
351 w
Citations
13
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Kid Bailey
Born
probably Mississippi, U.S.12
Diedafter 1960
GenresDelta Blues
OccupationMusician
Instruments
Years activeearly 1920s - 1950s3

Kid Bailey (before 1929 – after 1960)4 was a Mississippi Delta bluesman. His one known recording session occurred on September 25, 1929, in Memphis, Tennessee.5678

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". There has been some speculation that Kid Bailey was a pseudonym of the blues singer Willie Brown.9 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.10

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."11

Bailey's songs have been covered by Ian A. Anderson, Rory Block, Doug Cox, the Be Good Tanyas, and Thomasina Winslow with Nick Katzman.5

His song "Rowdy Blues" is included on the compilation album Masters of the Delta Blues: The Friends of Charlie Patton, released by Yazoo Records.12

References

References

  1. arwulf, arwulf. "Kid Bailey: Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  2. Eagle, Bob L.; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. ABC-CLIO. p. 187. ISBN 9780313344244.
  3. Komara, Edward; Lee, Peter (2004). The Blues Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 9781135958329.
  4. Taft, Michael (2013). Talkin' to Myself: Blues Lyrics, 1921-1942. Routledge. p. 23. ISBN 9781136734014.
  5. "Kid Bailey Discography". Wirz.de. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  6. "Kid Bailey" (1995). Guinness Who’s Who of Blues (2nd ed.). Colin Larkin, ed. Guinness Publishing. p. 17.
  7. Olsen, Ryan. "Kid Bailey". The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues. Vol. 1, A–J. Edward Komara, ed. New York: Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 0-415-92699-8.
  8. Cowley, John (1988). "Kid Bailey and Copyright". Blues & Rhythm 51, p. 16.
  9. "Honey, Where You Been So Long?". Prewarblues.org. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  10. "The mysterious Kid Bailey". MetaFilter. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  11. [1] Archived September 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  12. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 211. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
External links