The Legendary DeFord Bailey Country Music's First Black Star
From 1973-1982 David Morton, DeFord's friend and biographer, recorded many hours of conversation with DeFord and many of his tunes in his small apartment on the third floor of I. W. Gernert Homes public housing complex for senior citizens in Nashville, Tennessee.
Twenty six of the songs were released on a CD by the Tennessee Folklore Society Records as The Legendary DeFord Bailey: Country Music's First Black Star in 1998. The CD is still available for $15. It can be ordered by downloading an order form from the website of the Tennessee Folklore Society located at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee: www.tennesseefolklore.org/.