“Aw, man, you know the brother um takin’ ‘bout. He always be up at Eddie’s, light skin, heavy-set, like a fly-on-the-wall, be greasin’ secondhand tweeds, that ol’ newsboy cap, slanted to one side, pencil stub behind his ear.

“Wylie to Elmore…. wit’ them empty side pockets, his corduroys be singin’ the blues, cues Bessie on the Victrola. She moanin’ somethin’ ‘bout blues over Nashville, cryin’ about all them poor souls washed away.

“Man, he be steady typewritin’—clickety-clack, clickety-clack clackin’ — tellin’ Broadway what he feel – typewritin’-n- rewritin’, Backwater Blues, Backwater Blues.… He be tellin’ all ’bout Black folks on the Hill.” –Carlos F. Peterson, Post-Gazette