Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(usu. US black) reminiscent or characteristic of one’s home, esp. among black speakers, of the South; thus talk down-home, to speak black English; also adv., and fig. use.

1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 124: Done think some hell, you down-home black fool.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 9: I was just Lucy Hurston’s daughter, Zora, and even if I had – to use one of our down-home expressions – had a Kaiser baby [...] I’d still be just Zora to the neighbors.
1944		C. Himes ‘Let Me at the Enemy’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 43: Singin’ them down home songs.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 192: Ain’t nobody but you-all down home folks goin’ in for that sorta stuff nowadays.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 52: My songs came zooming out of me down-home solid. I was sure of myself.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 43: Just a down-home boy tryin’ t’give hisself a lil edge in life, that’s all.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 30: Somebody [...] sang it in the cotton fields or at somebody’s wedding or funeral ‘down home’.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 102: I’m ready to get behind some down home cooking.
1986		Joe Louis Walker ‘Moanin’ News’ 🎵 He irons his pants, and shines those pair of shoes / And then he moan that gutbucket downhome blues.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 135: One a those down-home places.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Downbeat. Downlow. Downhome. Cornrow.