Now some people don't understand. They think a blues player has to be worried, troubled to sing the blues. That's wrong. I'll put it this way; there's a doctor, he has medicine. He's never, sick, he ain't sick, but he has stuff for the sick people. So the blues player, he ain't worried and bothered, but he's got something for the worried people. Doctor . . . you can see his medicine, you can see his patient. Blues . . . you can't see the music you can't see the patient because it's soul. So I works on the soul, and the doctor works on the body - Roosevelt Sykes, spoken on Smithsonian/Folkways Classic Blues anthology
I really like Buddy Boy Hawkins playing and singing. It's unique and instantly recognizable when you hear him. Good tone and a cool signature turnaround.
To my ear BBH played with the old-fashioned non-opposing right hand style, similar to Patton, Henry Thomas, Richard "Rabbit" Brown, Jim Jackson, William Harris and pretty much anyone else who covered Kansas City Blues. This would include Brownie McGhee and there is a YouTube video of him demonstrating how he originally played KCB as his first song on guitar, clearly in the non-opposing style, and then how he changed it to a new modern two finger style with pinching. He slips back into it as he continues the song. Hard to get that driving syncopated rhythm while limited to pinching, or only upstrokes with the finger.
"White" would indicate innocence (especially since he identified her as brownskin in the same verse).
I've never encountered the word "wiped" in a blues song. That doesn't mean Hawkins didn't sing it. I can live with "wiped" too. I find it hard to hear what Hawkins sang there.
Back from vacation!
I'm pretty sure the word in question there at the end of the second verse is "washed" – Hawkins tends to turn his A's into I's a bit. Also in the intro I would suggest "Now let's see" instead of "Honestly" – Chris
Thanks for the help, Chris! There was no danger of me getting either one of those fixes, but after re-listening a couple of times, I can hear they're both spot on. Changes have been made.