The New Bully by Silas Leachman (1896)
CD 1, track 11
Recorded ca. 1896 in Chicago, here’s “The New Bully” by Silas Leachman. Perhaps the most notorious of all “coon” songs, it was first popularized by May Irwin, but she didn’t record it until 1907. In the late 1890s, it was waxed by Len Spencer, Dan W. Quinn, J. W. Myers and others. In the “hillbilly” era, when it was more commonly known as “The Bully of the Town,” it was recorded by artists such as Gid Tanner, Fiddlin’ John, Clayton McMichen, and Ernest Stoneman.
