Rabbit Brown
Encyclopedia
Richard "Rabbit" Brown was an American
blues
guitar
ist and composer. His music was characterized by a mixture of blues
, pop songs, and original topical ballads. He recorded six record
sides for Victor Records
on May 11, 1927.
. He did live in New Orleans from his youth on, and eventually moved to a rough district called the Battlefield. Here, several events inspired some of his future songs.
Rabbit Brown mainly performed at nightclub
s and street corners. He also earned extra money as a singing boatman on Lake Pontchartrain
. A couple of his most popular songs were his topical ballads, "The Downfall of the Lion" and "Gyp the Blood", which were based on actual events that occurred in New Orleans. They were never recorded, however, and only a verse from one of them has endured.
The songs Brown recorded in 1927 have been extensively re-released. His "James Alley Blues" is included in the Harry Smith's
Anthology of American Folk Music
and has been covered by dozens of modern musicians, including Bob Dylan
, Roger McGuinn
, and Jeff Tweedy
. His topical event songs, "Mystery of the Dunbar's Child
" and "Sinking of the Titanic" also remain popular - and the latter contained within its verses a truncated rendition of the old gospel music
standard "Nearer, My God, to Thee
," demonstrating the further versatility of his repertoire.
Not much is known about Rabbit Brown after 1930 other than that he died in 1937, probably in New Orleans.
Five of his recordings were included on the Document Records
compilation album
, The Greatest Songsters: Complete Works (1927-1929), along with tracks by Mississippi John Hurt
and Hambone Willie Newbern
.
In 2003 an anthology collection of rural acoustic gospel music titled Goodbye, Babylon was released, bringing to renewed public attention one of the two known recordings made by an otherwise undocumented singer named Blind Willie Harris. This piece, "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow," was recorded in New Orleans in 1929, and in describing it, the authors of the CD
liner notes pointed out its "strikingly similar" resemblance to the 1927 New Orleans recordings of Richard Rabbit Brown. Since then, more discussion has ensued among early blues and gospel collectors and scholars, leading some to state without equivocation that Harris was a pseudonym
of Brown's. Each listener will have to decide for him or herself the truth of the claim, as no documentation has been found to link Harris with Brown.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist and composer. His music was characterized by a mixture of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, pop songs, and original topical ballads. He recorded six record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
sides for Victor Records
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
on May 11, 1927.
Biography
Rabbit Brown was most likely born around 1880 in or near New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. He did live in New Orleans from his youth on, and eventually moved to a rough district called the Battlefield. Here, several events inspired some of his future songs.
Rabbit Brown mainly performed at nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s and street corners. He also earned extra money as a singing boatman on Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
. A couple of his most popular songs were his topical ballads, "The Downfall of the Lion" and "Gyp the Blood", which were based on actual events that occurred in New Orleans. They were never recorded, however, and only a verse from one of them has endured.
The songs Brown recorded in 1927 have been extensively re-released. His "James Alley Blues" is included in the Harry Smith's
Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
Anthology of American Folk Music
Anthology of American Folk Music
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records , comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music...
and has been covered by dozens of modern musicians, including Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, and Jeff Tweedy
Jeff Tweedy
Jeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...
. His topical event songs, "Mystery of the Dunbar's Child
Bobby Dunbar
Bobby Dunbar was a 4-year old child whose disappearance and apparent recovery was widely reported in newspapers across the United States in 1912 and 1913. After an eight-month nationwide search, investigators believed that they had found the child in the hands of William Cantwell Walters of...
" and "Sinking of the Titanic" also remain popular - and the latter contained within its verses a truncated rendition of the old gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
standard "Nearer, My God, to Thee
Nearer, My God, to Thee
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, based loosely on Genesis 28:11–19, the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the...
," demonstrating the further versatility of his repertoire.
Not much is known about Rabbit Brown after 1930 other than that he died in 1937, probably in New Orleans.
Five of his recordings were included on the Document Records
Document Records
Document Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...
compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, The Greatest Songsters: Complete Works (1927-1929), along with tracks by Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
and Hambone Willie Newbern
Hambone Willie Newbern
Hambone Willie Newbern was an American guitar-playing country blues musician. His home community was in the Brownsville, Tennessee area along Tennessee State Route 19. He was reported to have played with Yank Rachell and Sleepy John Estes in the 1920s and 1930s...
.
In 2003 an anthology collection of rural acoustic gospel music titled Goodbye, Babylon was released, bringing to renewed public attention one of the two known recordings made by an otherwise undocumented singer named Blind Willie Harris. This piece, "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow," was recorded in New Orleans in 1929, and in describing it, the authors of the CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
liner notes pointed out its "strikingly similar" resemblance to the 1927 New Orleans recordings of Richard Rabbit Brown. Since then, more discussion has ensued among early blues and gospel collectors and scholars, leading some to state without equivocation that Harris was a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Brown's. Each listener will have to decide for him or herself the truth of the claim, as no documentation has been found to link Harris with Brown.