This day in music history.

October 13, 1979, Clarence Muse dies at the age of 90. Clarence was a composer, screenwriter and held a law degree from Pennsylvania's Dickerson University. Muse appeared as an opera singer, a minstrel performer and a vaudeville actor. He was the first black American to star in a film. In 1939 he wrote the songs, co-wrote the story and starred in the musical "Way Down South." In 1973, Clarence Muse was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame
Sleepy Time Way Down South by Clarence Muse
Homesick, tired, all alone in a big city
Why should eveybody pity me?
Nighttime falling, and Im yearning
for Virginia Hospitality
within ya calls me
Pale moon shining on the fields below
Folks are crooning songs soft and low
Need not tell me so,
Because I know its sleepy time down south
Soft winds blowing thru the pinewood trees
Folks down there live a life of ease
When the twilight brings the evening breeze
Its sleepy time down south
Steamboats on the river, a coming, a going
Splashing the night away
Hear those banjos ringing,
The folks are all singing
They dance till break of day
Dear old southland with its dreamy songs
Takes me back there where I belong
Ill find heaven in my mothers arms
When its sleepy time down south