Richard "Rabbit" Brown (c. 1880 – 1937) was an American blues
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
ist and composer. His music has been characterized as a mixture of blues, pop songs, and original topical
ballads
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
. He recorded six sides for
Victor Records
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsid ...
on March 11, 1927, one of which, "James Alley", is included in the 1952 '' Anthology of American Folk Music'' and has been covered by
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
s and on the street.
Including the recording also selected for the '' Anthology of American Folk Music'' five of Brown's six known recordings appear on the compilation album ''The Greatest Songsters: Complete Works (1927–1929)''. His sixth recorded song, “Great Northern Blues,” was not released and is considered to be lost.
Brown died in 1937, probably in New Orleans.
Topical songwriting
At least four of Brown's most popular songs were topical
ballads
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
. "The Downfall of the Lion" and "Gyp the Blood" were based on events that occurred in New Orleans. Neither of these songs was recorded, but both were later remembered and named by Brown's contemporaries.
Two of Brown's recorded songs, "The Mystery of the Dunbar's Child," and "The Sinking of the Titanic," are considered to be original topical songs, and not "folk" songs in the sense of being passed along from performer to performer with slight variations.
Blind Willie Harris
An anthology of rural acoustic gospel music, ''Goodbye, Babylon'', released in 2003, included one of the two known recordings 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 Richard Brown's 1927 New Orleans recordings. Since then, more discussion has ensued among early blues and gospel collectors and scholars, leading many to state without equivocation that Harris was a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
of Brown's, although no documents linking the name Harris with Brown have been found.
Music of Louisiana
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French (now known as cajun music), New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a uniqu ...