Sunbeam Blues sets a text by poet Julie Kane and was premiered in recital at the University of Maryland, College Park in April 2009 by Alicia Waller, soprano; Jessica Zweig, clarinet; and Dale Trumbore, piano.

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This recording features Jennifer Piazza-Pick, soprano and Ying-Shan Su, piano.

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SUNBEAM BLUES

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Sunbeam pourin' in the window

when my baby wakes and shaves

Sunbeam streamin' in the window

when my baby wakes and shaves

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and it waits by my baby's chair

like a dog at a grave

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Sunbeam fallin' on his shoulder

as he reads the want ads through

He sits in that stick of sunbeam

and he reads the want ads through

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He's been lookin' for work six weeks

in the same blue suit

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My baby feels as restless

as the dust in that patch of sun

He's dancin' his way to nowhere

just like the dust in that patch of sun

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He's tired of takin' my money

and he wants to give me some

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I said, if them bosses was women

well, I know just what they'd do 

If all them bosses was women, baby,

I'm sure of what they'd do

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Any woman with two good eyes

would sure pick you

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Sunbeam pourin' in the window

It shines on the rug all day

My baby's all out of dreams now

he just sits in the sun all day

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And the smoke from his cigarettes

stains that sunbeam gray

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—Julie Kane, from Body and Soul.