Musicians
- Karl Davis — Lead Vocals, Mandolin
- Harty Taylor — Lead Vocals, Guitar
Karl Davis and Harty Taylor, the Kentucky duo Karl & Harty of Chicago’s National Barn Dance, wrote “I’m Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail” and recorded it in Chicago on March 22, 1934, for the American Record Corporation, which issued it on Perfect, Banner, Melotone and Conqueror as “I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail.” The lyric is spoken at the jailhouse door by a woman who has come with what money she could raise to free the man she loves, and the song’s plainness and steady duet harmony made it a model for the brother acts that followed. The Blue Sky Boys sang it, and the Everly Brothers learned it from their father and put it on Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (1958); Johnny Cash sang it at Folsom Prison in 1968, and Porter Wagoner and Marty Robbins recorded it too.
The bluegrass version came from Red Allen, Frank Wakefield and the Kentuckians on Bluegrass (Folkways, 1964), produced by a nineteen-year-old David Grisman. The track was cut at Cue Recordings in New York in the spring of 1964 with Allen singing lead and playing guitar, Wakefield on mandolin and singing the chorus lead, Bill Keith on banjo, John McGee on fiddle and Fred Weisz on bass. Allen’s hard-edged voice over Wakefield’s mandolin is the sound most pickers have in mind when the song is called at a jam.
Assisted by AI.
Spot something off? Help us fix it.
