You’re listening to Mississippi John Hurt with one of the most oft-recorded murder ballads, Stack O’Lee. No one’s quite sure who Stack, also called Stag, or Stagger Lee, is based on: Some say a pimp, some a Confederate cavalryman, others a steamboat rouster. But all agree on one thing…he was a baaaad man. This tune’s all about Stag, poor Billy DeLyons…and a Stetson hat.

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