Artist Info: James Bland

James Alan Bland (October 22, 1854 – May 5, 1911), also known as Jimmy Bland, was an African American musician and song writer.

Bland was one of 8 children born in Flushing, New York to a free family. His father was one of the first U. S. Negro college graduates (Oberlin College, 1845). Because white men in blackface dominated the field of U. S. minstrel shows, Bland did not get very far in his U. S. minstrel career before the abolition of slavery in the United States. [read more...]