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
Downhearted Blues Downhearted Blues "Downhearted Blues" is a blues song composed by American jazz singer Alberta Hunter and musician Lovie Austin. The first line sets the theme for the song: "Gee but it's hard to love someone when that someone don't love you". Hunter sang it during her engagement at the Dreamland Cafe, in Chicago, where she performed with Joe "King" Oliver's band. She made a recording of the song in 1922. Blues singer Bessie Smith recorded the song with piano accompaniment by Clarence Williams on February 16, 1923. It was released as her first single (with "Gulf Coast Blues" on the