Gussie Davis

Gussie Lord Davis (December 3, 1863 - December 18, 1899 [http://musicsack.com/PersonFMTDetail.cfm?PersonPK=100020237 Music Sack] ) was an African-American songwriter from Cincinnati, Ohio. Davis was one of America's earliest successful African-American music artists, having been the first Black songwriter to acquire fame on Tin Pan Alley as a composer of minstrels.

Some of his songs include:
*"We Sat Beneath the Maple On The Hill"
*"In The Baggage Coach Ahead"
*"Footprints In The Snow"
*"My Creole Sue"
*"She Waited at the Altar in Vain"

Perhaps his most notable song, "Irene, Good Night" (1886), entered the folk song repertoire albeit significantly altered as "Goodnight, Irene" in "Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly" (1936), edited by John Lomax and Alan Lomax.

References

External links

* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/search?query=%2Bname:gussie%20%2Bname:davis&view=thumbnail&start=0 Library of Congress's electronic archive of Gussie Davis's sheet music]
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/ohio/ohio-minstrel.html Life in Nineteeth Century Ohio: Minstrel Songs]
* [http://www.wylieww.com/cowboy.html Wylie and the Wild West, Cowboy Ballads and Dance Songs]