Songster Richard "Rabbit" Brown was from New Orleans, Louisiana and recorded six sides for the Victor Talking Machine Company. He was from was Jane's (not James) Alley, renowned as an exciting and dangerous place in turn of the century New Orleans. Fellow bluesman Lemon Nash remembered that Brown lived in the "Battlefield," a neighborhood so tough that the police would not go in to quell disturbances (Nash in a 1959 interview with Dick Allen, in Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University). Jane's Alley was also the original home of Louis Armstrong.
Rabbit sang on the streets and was a regular performer at the Mama Lou's nightclub. Brown also apparently was employed as a singing boatman, rowing tourists around Lake Ponchatrain. His most famous song was "The Downfall of the Lion," a ballad about the death of the New Orleans Police Chief.
FOR ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS of Brown see the collections: Gambler's Lament (Country Turtle 6001a); The Greatest Songsters (DOC 5003c); Cream of the Crop, 1926-1942 (Roots 332a); and Nearer My God to Thee (Roots 304a).
OTHER RECORDED VERSIONS include:
Folksong revival: as James Alley Blues: Joan Crane (FR 121a); The Lyman Family and Jim Kweskin (REP 6353a).
Bluegrass: as James Alley Blues: Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard (RND 0054d).
Blues: as James Alley Blues: Jerry Ricks (Rooster 2636c).
