Laura Smith (blues singer) Laura Smith (blues singer) Laura Smith (March 1882 – February 1932) was an American classic female blues and country blues singer. Songs she recorded include "Gonna Put You Right in Jail" and her version of "Don't You Leave Me Here". She led Laura Smith and her Wild Cats and also worked with Clarence Williams and Perry Bradford. Details of her life outside the music industry are scanty. The researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc state that she was born Loretta Bryant in Illinois in 1882. Other sources suggest that she was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, at an unknown date. In
Don Was he grew up listening to the Detroit blues sound and the jazz music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, amongst many others. As a teenager, Was was further influenced by the Beat Generation, most notably John Sinclair. In high school, Was was the lead singer and guitar player in a Detroit rock band called the Saturns. The first recording project that he engineered and produced was in 1971 with drummer Muruga Booker on a recording called "Rama Rama / Endless Path". Using the stage name "Don Was", he formed the group Was (Not Was) with school friend David Weiss (David