Baby Tate

Biography Tate was born in Elberton, Georgia, and was raised in Greenville, South Carolina. As an adolescent, he started performing locally, after seeing Blind Blake in Elberton. Tate later formed a trio with Joe Walker (the brother of Willie Walker) and Roosevelt "Baby" Brooks and, up to 1932, played locally. As the Carolina Blackbirds, they performed on radio station WFBC, broadcasting from the Jack Tar Hotel. For the rest of the 1930s he worked other jobs, mainly as a mason.

Tate served in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II in the south of England. He returned to the Spartanburg-Greenville club circuit in 1946. He claimed to have recorded several unreleased tracks for Kapp Records in 1950. Relocating to Spartanburg, South Carolina, he performed solo before forming an occasional duo with Pink Anderson, a working relationship that endured until the 1970s, when Anderson was disabled by a stroke. His recording of the song is included on the compilation album Classic Appalachian Blues, released by Smithsonian Folkways in 2010.

Discography Albums Blues of Baby Tate: See What You Done Done (1962, Prestige/Bluesville; 1995, CD reissue, Origin Blues Classics)

Singles "See What You Done Done" backed with "Late in the Evening", recorded 1970 (1974, Trix Records)