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
When Jones' Ale was New online at the British Library Sound Archive. Peter Kennedy recorded Gloucestershire singer Harry Illes in 1957. A version collected from "Sailor Dad" Hunt of Marion, Virginia, by John A Lomax in 1941 was released on a Library of Congress LP, American Sea songs and Shanties. A L Lloyd, Martin Wyndham-Read, John Kirkpatrick and Danny Spooner have all recorded versions. The title of a version by The Kipper Family "When Peculiar Ale was New", may be a reference to Theakston's Old Peculiar, a popular real ale. A.L. Lloyd said that this song was sung at Easter by “Jolly-boys” or “Pace-eggers”: "Here