James A. Bland

b. 22 October 1854, Flushing, New York, USA, d. 6 May 1911, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Educated at Howard University, Bland gained a degree in law and worked for the US Patent Office. He was, however, set on a career as an entertainer and songwriter. As a young man he sang and played banjo with minstrel troupes, notably Haverly’s Genuine Colored Minstrels, in which also appeared popular performers such as Jim Grace, Billy Kersands and Tom Mackintosh. With the troupe, he travelled widely including visiting Europe. This was in the days when even black entertainers ‘blacked-up’ for their stage performers and delivered songs and dances that reinforced racial stereotypes, and Bland was no exception. He became very popular and in 1880 reportedly enjoyed a five-figure annual income, a huge sum for the day. Much of this income came from his prolific songwriting. After living for 20 years in London, Bland returned to the USA in 1901 and settled for a while in Washington, DC. By this time, he had spent all his money and lived out his days in poverty and ill health, eventually dying of tuberculosis. His death went unreported by contemporary newspapers, his grave unmarked until more than a quarter of a century after his death.


Bland is believed to have composed more than 700 songs. One of these was ‘Listen To The Silver Trumpet’s Sounding’, the sheet music of which is inscribed to Harrigan And Hart, white entertainers who were instrumental, as was Bland’s music, in helping generate the chalk-line walk, a precursor of the cakewalk craze. Other songs Bland composed that are still performed today include ‘Oh, Dem Golden Slippers’, ‘Hand Me Down My Walking Cane’, ‘Tell ’Em I’ll Be There’, ‘In The Evening By The Moonlight’ and ‘De Golden Wedding’. Best known of all is ‘Carry Me Back To Old Virginny’. It was this song that inspired newly-arrived immigrant Victor Herbert, then a classical cellist, to turn to composing in the popular idiom. The song would also become the state song of Virginia. Under the direction of Dick Hyman, some of Bland’s songs and those of other songwriters of his era were performed on the 1999 release Don’t Give The Name A Bad Place.