Stagolee Shot Billy Cecil Brown With performances by Ron Paris and Ron Valentine TALK: Violence, Narrative and Folk Culture in the Global Village Monday, May 10 / 11-12 / FREE Lotte Lehman Pavilion, Department of Music, UCSB TALK / PERFORMANCE / BOOKSIGNING / RECEPTION Monday, May 10 / 3:30-5:00 / FREE McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB, UCSB All are welcome to attend an informative and lively afternoon with author Cecil Brown. Brown's most recent book Stagolee Shot Billy examines the many versions of the well-known blues song “Stagolee,” revealing its deep cultural resonance as a piece of oral history. Hundreds of artists, among them Ma Rainey, Cab Calloway, the Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Taj Mahal, and James Brown have contributed to the rich legacy of songs devoted to the legendary killing of Billy Lyons by Lee Shelton --aka “Stack-Lee,” “Stack-o-Lee,” or “Stagolee” in a St. Louis bar in 1895. Brown's literary project traces the ballad's genesis and the implications of its development and mutation over time across a broad array of cultural and musicological contexts, including contemporary forms such as rap and hip-hop. At 11:00 Brown will deliver his talk Violence, Narrative and Folk Culture in the Global Village and at 3:30 will be joined by Ron Paris and Ron Valentine who will perform verisons of the Stagolee ballad. Books will be available for signing and a reception will follow. Cecil Brown is also author of Days Without Weather (Farrar Straus & Giroux,1983); Coming Up Down Home: A Memoir of a Southern Childhood (The Dark Tower) (Ecco, 2000); and is well known for his best-selling 1969 novel, The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger, recently reprinted in 1991. Top of Page <<Back