Biography
On December 11, 1934, guitarist and singer Jesse Wadley cut five sides for John Lomax inside Atlanta’s Bellwood Prison in Georgia: “Alabama Prison Blues,” “St. James Infirmary,” and three versions of “Do It in Weldon Yards.” Among them, Wadley’s own “Alabama Prison Blues” stands out for its seemingly casual, spur-of-the-moment delivery that nevertheless carries an upbeat guitar figure and precisely shaped verses. Lomax had asked the inmate for a number recounting how he had landed behind bars, and “Alabama Prison Blues” was the piece that followed. Because Wadley was serving time in Georgia while the lyrics describe events that placed him in an Alabama penitentiary, the song implies the bluesman had already known more than one stretch of incarceration.