By David Squires

Title: Lonesome Cabin Blues
Artist: Mercy Dee
Year: 1949
Label: Spire
Genre: Blues

It is lonesome in my cabin, just me and my telephone.
It is lonesome in my cabin, just me and my telephone.
Lord, I has no one to cling to, no one to call my own.

Now, the nights are long and gloomy, no one knockin' on my door.
Now, the nights are long and gloomy, no one knockin' on my door.
Lord, no one to feel my sympathy, no one to say hello.

These ol' lonesome cabin blues is just much too much for me.
These ol' lonesome cabin blues is just much too much for me.
Lord, I'm gonna find me some other woman, just to keep me company.

Mercy Dee Walton is one of two musicians who Grant mentions to Jefferson in Chapter 22, during their first visit after the Governor set Jefferson's execution date. While relating news from the quarter, Grant mentions that Inez still gives fairs, but, "If you want your music at a fair, you have to go down to Willie Aaron's house. Willie still has that stack of old low-down blues—Tampa Red, Mercy Dee—you know, all of them" (171). This line of discussion leads Grant to offer Jefferson a portable radio so Jefferson can listen late at night, which in turn leads to a breakthrough in their relationship. For the first time, readers see that Jefferson and Grant share common interests. They like popular music, and seem to enjoy forms of sociality that come along with secular music—namely, dancing and drinking. Their elders do not approve. Inez calls that sinning, Grant explains, while Reverend Ambrose, Tante Lou, and Miss Emma object to Jefferson listening to the radio. Mercy Dee thus provides more than an example of the blues; he represents a generational divide that places Grant and Jefferson in tension with those older, more devout characters. Grant leverages that connection with Jefferson to cultivate trust and, eventually, friendship.

Like many of the references Gaines uses in his fiction, Mercy Dee is a real historical figure. While most of Gaines's historical references help situate the narrative within a specific historical timeline, the reference to Mercy Dee appears as a rare anachronism. "Lonesome Cabin Blues" was Mercy Dee's first record, one of two he released in 1949 on Fresno-based label Spire. The June 18, 1949 issue of Billboardmagazine reported "Lonesome Cabin Blues" as part of its advanced record releases, "approximately two weeks in advance of actual release date." The mid-summer release date puts Mercy Dee's first record release at least a couple months after Jefferson's execution date of April 8, 1949. Willie Aaron could not have had a copy in his stack of records.

However, the error could be attributed to Grant, rather than Gaines. We know Grant spent time in California with his parents before returning to Louisiana. It is plausible that Grant heard Mercy Dee play in California, where the Texas-born blues artist started making his musical career in the 1930s. Mercy Dee played Southern style blues for many recent transplants who arrived in California as part of the Great Migration, conjuring the home those migrants recently left with his barrelhouse blues piano. "Lonesome Cabin Blues" takes a standard blues form by repeating the first line of a verse, then following it up with a rhymed line, forming a couplet. Typical of Mercy Dee's lonesome blues, this song narrates a story of a man stuck in his cabin without any company. Although not released until summer of 1949, the song makes a resonant allusion in A Lesson because it conjures sadness borne of isolation, a feeling that both Jefferson and Grant experience as they come to terms with their circumstances in the novel.