Songfacts®:

• In this 1930 single, Bessie Smith is headed to Black Mountain, where folks are so ruthless they use gunpowder to sweeten their tea and birth babies that cry for liquor. Armed with a razor and a gun, Bessie is on the hunt for her cheating man with deadly intentions: "I'm gonna shoot him if he stands still, and cut him if he runs."
• Although occasionally credited to composer H. Cole, this was written by J.C. Johnson, a Chicago-born pianist who wrote a number of blues tunes throughout the '20s and '30s, including "Me And My Gin," "Haunted House Blues," and "Empty Bed Blues," which were also recorded by Smith. He also co-wrote "The Joint Is Jumpin'," a big hit for Fats Waller in 1937.
• A handful of other acts have recorded this somewhat obscure tune, including Dave Van Ronk, Hoyt Axton, and Nick Drake. Janis Joplin recorded it in San Francisco in 1965 with the Dick Oxtot Jazz Band; it was released 10 years later on the posthumous compilation Janis.
• Paula Cole also covered this for her 2021 album, American Quilt, as a tribute to Smith and Joplin in particular. She told Songfacts: "Both women sang this song. It is strong like good coffee and brings out something different in me as I honor the legacy of two great artists who identify with the lyrics of 'Black Mountain,' where appetite and violence rule - and softness must yield to steeliness. Bessie and Janis related to these lyrics. And I do too."
• Black Mountain is a real town in North Carolina, where Bessie Smith performed at a juke joint called the Roseland Gardens in Brookside, a nearby African American community. Many residents of Western North Carolina thought Smith wrote the song about her experiences in Black Mountain, but there's no evidence that Johnson, the actual songwriter, ever visited the town.