Rabbit Brown

For other people named Richard Brown, see Richard Brown (disambiguation).

Rabbit Brown
Born	Richard Brown 1885 (1885) Covington, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	November 30, 1928(1928-11-30) (aged 42–43) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Genre	Country blues
Occupation	Musician
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Label	Victor

Richard "Rabbit" Brown (1885 – November 30, 1928) was an American blues guitarist and composer. His music has been characterized as a mixture of blues, pop songs, and original topical ballads. He recorded six sides for Victor Records 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, among others.

The rock critic Greil Marcus has called Brown's recording of "James Alley" "the greatest recording ever made."

Biography

Brown was born in 1885 in Covington, Louisiana. His family moved to New Orleans by the time he was three years old. He eventually moved to the Battlefield, a rough district of the city, where several events inspired some of the songs he later wrote. He mainly performed at nightclubs and on the street. It was noted that Brown sang "in a gritty voice and playing fluent guitar that incorporated flamenco runs, string snapping and high speed bass runs; he also took tourists for rowboat rides on Lake Ponchartrain".

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 on November 30, 1928, of an aortic aneurysm at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. He is buried at Holt Cemetery.

Topical songwriting

At least four of Brown's most popular songs were topical ballads. "The Downfall of the Lion" and "Gyp the Blood" were based on events that occurred in New Orleans. Neither of these songs were 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 of Brown's, although no documents linking the name Harris with Brown have been found. It now appears that Brown died months before the recording was made.

The most extensive biography yet, Richard "Rabbit" Brown: No One Knew What His Fate May Be was released in late 2025 by Justin Sullivan, who devoted over 1500 hours to reconstructing Brown's life.

Quotation

I done seen better days, but I'm putting up with these.

—Rabbit Brown

See also

• List of blues musicians
• Music of Louisiana

External links

• "Times Ain't Like They Used to Be: Rabbit Brown, New Orleans Songster" by Kevin S. Fontenot - from Bluesworld
• Illustrated Richard Rabbit Brown discography, including also Blind Willie Harris
• Artist Direct: Richard Rabbit Brown