RE: W.C.Handy, I'd always assumed from reading between the lines that WC probably wrote down, tidied up and copyrighted traditional blues and claimed them for his own as well as writing new ones.
But then every blues record tends to attribute the old favourites to the artists performing them, even though the tunes are the same and the words vary little, he just didn't record them himself,but disseminated them to a wider audience from which we've all benefitted since.
And then again, what do I know, I'm just total flake- official!
RtS