R.A.P. Ferreira on why he can’t stop listening to Leadbelly’s ‘Gallis Pole’

Nashville’s R.A.P Ferreira is a rapper and poet by trade. His album, “5 To the Eye with Stars” was our Nashville Record of the Week. In that interview he said that he had to make a blues record before finishing “5 To The Eye With Stars” in order to carry on the lineage of the blues music. Makes sense when we asked him this question.

What’s the last song you couldn’t stop listening to?

Oh wow, “Gallis Pole” by Leadbelly.

It’s about a man who is about to die. He’s about to be hanged. And he’s asking everyone he knows to bring him money so he can get out. He asks his mom to bring him some gold, bring him some silver to save him from the gallows pole. Same thing with the daddy. “Daddy what did you bring me?” “Well son, I brought you silver, I brought you gold, to save you from the gallows pole.”

And then he goes, “And here comes a so called ‘friend.’ And the so called ‘friend’ wants to see you end.” “And you say, ‘Friend what did you bring me?'” And they say “I ain’t bring you no silver, and I ain’t bring you no gold. I just came to see you hang from the gallows pole.”

That family message. I think in this era we get so caught up in the minor differences with our family about perspective and whatever and we lose sight of like, yeah, who will be there, with that bag for you though, when you need it?