 I was too stubborn to give up the idea because I had traveled all over the country singing and playing the blues. And I knew that people were waiting for that sound on the record because it was the sound of America, Negro and white. Perry Bradford was hungry, literally. Rent was coming due. His shoes were worn so thin they barely had soles. But he believed in this dream. And being the mule, all the no's he heard only fed the fire within him.