The Lead Belly Songbook - Lead Belly, no stranger to the blues

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Fannin Street (Mr. Tom Hughes' Town)

Click here to listen to Real Audio format 28.8 modem.

This song is autobiographical, telling the story of how Huddie left his parent's home as a young teenager to go to the bars and bawdy houses on Fannin Street in Shreveport, only ten miles from his home in Mooringsport.

John Lomax described it as the gayest and saddest song in his repertoire. His drinking and carousing that began on Fannin Street certainly served to make his life more difficult than it might have been, yet his craving for fun and action also fed his talent for making music.

Being one of Lead Belly's masterpieces, it is not an easy song to play, especially for a beginner. But don't let that stop you!! Like so many of his songs, to play it in the way he did will require a lot of study, but a quick and dirty arrangement is easy to do, as long as you feel like singing the melody.

My recording of Fannin Street is under my CD pages. Click here