James "Iron Head" Baker (March 18, 1884 – February 23, 1944)[1][2] and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt (around 1867 – after 1939)[3][4] were African American traditional folk singers imprisoned in the Central State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Texas.

[8] In reality he was a minor criminal, guilty of nothing more violent than burglary, but sentenced to ninety-nine years as a repeat offender.

According to Clear Rock (in Lomax's spelling): "One day some of my friends in Taylor heard that Miz Ferguson wuz goin' down to Central Farm a visitin' and they sent a car down there with a letter signed by 30,000 peoples, they wuz de names of all de prominent lawyers an' officers and all other whichocrats around `Taylor, an Miz Ferguso set me free."

[18] John Lomax developed an affection for Iron Head, visiting him when in Texas and sending small gifts of money.

Iron Head showed his gratitude with a hand-made gift for Ruby Terrill Lomax, John's second wife, and a card for Christmas 1935.

This was the role fulfilled the previous year by Lead Belly, except that Iron Head was unable to act as chauffeur.

At the end of the engagement, Iron Head was to be set up in business exploiting the handicraft skills he had learned in the penitentiary.

In a letter written in 1941 to his son Alan, John quoted Iron Head as telling him "Crime don't pay.

His extempore verses ended in Alan Lomax'x account "... with the cowboy pitched off his pinto and lying hung in a mesquite tree.

"Cowboy lyin' on a limb a sprawlin' Come a little win', and down he come a falliin' With a bum-ti-hiddle-um-a yeah, yum-a-yeah With a bum-ti-hiddle-um-a-yeah"[22]Many of the songs by Iron Head and Clear Rock remain unreleased.

This is a list of their songs issued in collections, in order of publication: Library of Congress AFS L3: Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, And Ballads (1942) 78 rpm album, later reissued on LP and CD Library of Congress AFS L4: Afro-American Blues And Game Songs (1942) 78 rpm album, later reissued on LP and CD Library of Congress AFS L8 Negro Work Songs And Calls (1943) 78 rpm album, later reissued on LP and CD (These titles were previously released as 78rpm AAFS 38) Library of Congress AAFS L54: Versions and variants of Barbara Allen (1964)

WVU Press Sound Archive Volume Nine: Jail House Bound — John Lomax's First Southern Prison recordings, 1933 (2012)