Leadbelly's Blues

                          Found him on the corner of Bourbon and Royal 

                          He was a great big black Texas boozer 

                          I knew he had a place for me to spoil.

                         We traveled everywhere ‘round these parts 

                         Me waitin’ on the back cold stones 

                         Him playin’ that flat box and tearin’ out hearts.

                         He called me Tatters.  He left barbecue on the bones, 

                         And let me slop the beer up after we left the joints’. 

                         We slept in flophouses and he wrote hundreds of songs.

                         Once we went all the way to see a Dallas man 

                         Took us most near a week ridin’ them slow freight trains— 

                         Hitched in from Ft. Worth and walked over hot bricks and sand.

                         He was worn out from the travel and he needed a job 

                         Stoppin’ on that city street called Ellum 

                         He talked to someone but they called him a slob.

                         He took up fightin’ then and knocked that man to the ground. 

                         I was runnin’ full out when I caught him up, ‘bout two blocks down. 

                         A sassy woman said, “C’mon I’ll give you some if ya come around.”

                        We was mellow when the evenin’ came and rain started to fall 

                        Lickin’ his hand I was tryin’ to tell him it’d all be fine, 

                        When a blind man that everybody knew wandered into the hall.

                        Blind Lemon, Blind Lemon sing us that old blues again! 

                        Sing it with this big bad blues man come here from Nah‘leans. 

                        Leadbelly, this be Blind Lemon—finest livin’ black blues man.

                        I heard them two rounders holler, and strum into the night 

                        Singin’ out their souls; makin’ music with great might. 

                        Never will forget in all my wandrin’ years 

                        Down in Deep Ellum— such joy and sadness in my ears.

                                 © Gay Reiser Cannon  All Rights Reserved

                         Blues story based on a true report of Leadbelly, having been
                         released from Sugarland Prison,who then made his way to Dallas
                         hoping to find Blind Lemon Jefferson.