DESCRIPTION:
I put this blues song up a month ago and Peter Adamson thought it would be a good chance to try out his new Tom Bradshaw resonator pedal. I think it sounds pretty good here. He has also added footage from an old movie which goes well with the story.

This song is based on an actual series of events. Frank DuPre, eighteen years old and unemployed, had set out on a career of petty theft when he fell in love with seventeen-year old Betty Andrews. Though he spent much of his ill-gotten gains on her she wanted more, even a diamond ring. On December 15, 1921, Frank, after drinking a half-pint of moonshine, went to Kaiser’s Jewelry, where he persuaded a manager to show him a very expensive diamond ring. He grabbed it and ran for the door, only to run into Irby Walker, a security agent for the store. DuPre produced a gun from his pocket and shot Walker, a young father of one. He bolted down Peachtree Street and wounded another man badly before finally skipping town by promising a large sum of money to a taxi driver. After pawning the ring in Chattanooga and spending several weeks on the run, the law caught up with Frank. He was quickly tried and convicted, and eventually hanged on September 1, 1922. His case was prominent in the press and he gathered quite a following of advocates and well-wishers before his execution. The general feeling was that Dupree was a good man led astray by a bad woman. In fact, Betty Andrews did know about the robbery and didn’t report it, but she had nothing to do with planning it and she cooperated with police in apprehending DuPre.

The earliest known print reference to the ballad was Howard Odum and Guy Johnson's "Negro Workaday Songs" (1926), There were already two very different variants of the song only four years after DuPre’s execution. Interestingly, it was considered an African-American song, though Frank and Betty were both white.

The earliest recording was by Kingfish Bill Tomlin in 1930, followed by Blind Willie Walker in 1930. It was also recorded by Georgia White (1935), Woody Herman (1937), Teddy Grace (1939) and Josh White (1945), the version I first heard. Other artists who recorded it include Brownie McGhee (1955), Chuck Willis (1957), Lonnie Donegan (1958), Dave van Ronk (1959), Harry Belafonte (1962), Peter, Paul and Mary (1965) and The Grateful Dead (1969).

My original upload is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhAtDRdkMAo

You can see this video on Peter's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C7tj3oSyPc

Lyrics and chords of the song can be found here: http://www.raymondfolk.com/page/Betty+and+Dupree

You can watch a playlist of my collaborations with YouTube friends here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=PLCi_Xcl2_fAWL2M68MTVfJv3-uDzLJV2N

For lyrics and chords of all my songs, please see my website:
http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com