Melodyka utworu "Poor Boy Blues", technika akompaniamentu (bottleneck – przy pomocy noża) i unisonowe partie gitary i głosu były typowe dla Missisipi:
Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.
I was down in Louisiana doin’ as I please, Now I’m in Texas I got to work or leave. Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.
If your home’s in Louisiana what you doin’ over here? Said my home ain’t in Texas and I sure don’t care. Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.
I don’t care if the boat don’t never land. I can stay on the water as long as any man. Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.
Hey my boat come a rockin’ just like a drunken man. And my home’s on the water and I sure don’t like land. Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.
Inni niewolnicy zostali przywiezieni łodziami aż do rzeki Red River i to stało się tematem słynnego bluesa teksańskiego "Red River Blues"Do 1943 r. został nagrany 11-krotnie. Lottie Beaman (3.1924), Charlie Dad Nelson (9.1926), Laura Smith (6.1927), Henry Thomas (Ragtime Texas) (10.1927), Reubin Lacy (12.1927), Irene Mims (4.1928), Josh White (4.1932), Buddy Moss (1.1933), Huddie Leadbelly Ledbetter 1.1935), Frank Evans (4.1936) i Virgil Childers (1.1938).