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Post by terrapinflyer on Oct 4, 2022 15:28:23 GMT -5
Who else loves them some murder ballads? Appalachia, British Isles, Cape Breton, Maritimes....anywhere anglophone, I guess. It's the storytelling as well as the performance, watching stories evolve through generations and distances. I guess folk songs in general interest me that way, but I'm always looking for new iterations of the murder ballad.
There was a radio program from UMass that each week took 4 or 5 Child Ballads, in order, with 3 or 4 examples of each. I found it fascinating, my coworkers less so. Maybe someone here likes 'em.
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Post by terrapinflyer on Oct 4, 2022 16:24:48 GMT -5
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Rattlesnake Daddy
Full Member
Posts: 608
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Post by Rattlesnake Daddy on Oct 4, 2022 16:27:17 GMT -5
When I saw the thread title, my first thought went to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. A little more modern, but I love his work. Here he is playing with P.J. Harvey. One of my favorite performers.
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Post by trailboss on Oct 4, 2022 16:29:18 GMT -5
Not really a murder ballad, but I wouldn’t get much sleep if Hasil was under my roof for the night.
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Rattlesnake Daddy
Full Member
Posts: 608
Favorite Pipe: Always changing
Favorite Tobacco: Peretti D-7485, G&H Mixture No. 25, Bayou Night.
Location:
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Post by Rattlesnake Daddy on Oct 4, 2022 16:37:54 GMT -5
Another of his with Kylie Minogue
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Post by Plainsman on Oct 4, 2022 16:44:43 GMT -5
Here lies Lester Moore.
Six shots from a .44.
No less. No more.
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Post by terrapinflyer on Oct 4, 2022 17:04:18 GMT -5
I didn't even think of the Nick Cave album. He is a good songwriter. Hasil was a character and certainly influenced by a lot of different styles as well as Appalachian traditions. Not so different from Billy Strings in a way.
But before Oh the Wind and rain, there was Twa Sisters:
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Post by Ronv69 on Oct 4, 2022 17:21:06 GMT -5
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Post by Plainsman on Oct 4, 2022 17:37:53 GMT -5
Then they all moved to Lemoyne.
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Post by Ronv69 on Oct 4, 2022 17:40:09 GMT -5
Then they all moved to Lemoyne. I have cousins in Wyoming and Montana, but I have only met a couple and we didn't get along. |
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Post by william on Oct 4, 2022 18:26:05 GMT -5
Emily terrapinflyerYou might already know about this. If not--Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer recorded several of the Child Ballads. Look up "The Crypt Sessions" on YouTube to find them. Here is one of my favorites ("Tam Lin"---Child 39) |
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Post by william on Oct 4, 2022 18:27:42 GMT -5
Oh--and a murder ballad performed by Doc Watson:
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Post by urbino on Oct 4, 2022 20:58:24 GMT -5
I'm a murder ballad fan. "Stagger Lee" (and variant names). "Long Black Veil". Does "The Well Below the Valley" count?
Some modern inheritors of the tradition might be Neil Young's "Down By the River", Wilco's "Bull Black Nova", and any number of Gillian Welch songs.
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Post by terrapinflyer on Oct 5, 2022 6:14:35 GMT -5
I'll check out the Crypt Sessions. And Little Sadie is a favorite in all its iterations.
Stagger Lee is an interesting one, because we know its earliest date. You can see it evolve from not long after it originated, through blues guys, through Woody Guthrie, through the Grateful Dead (who added Delia and a well-placed gunshot), through Nick Cave, and on into the present and future.
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Post by Legend Lover on Oct 5, 2022 6:16:26 GMT -5
When I saw the thread title, my first thought went to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. A little more modern, but I love his work. Here he is playing with P.J. Harvey. One of my favorite performers. I like this song, but the lip-sync on the woman in this video is woeful. |
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Post by daveinlax on Oct 5, 2022 23:13:51 GMT -5
I'll check out the Crypt Sessions. And Little Sadie is a favorite in all its iterations. Stagger Lee is an interesting one, because we know its earliest date. You can see it evolve from not long after it originated, through blues guys, through Woody Guthrie, through the Grateful Dead (who added Delia and a well-placed gunshot), through Nick Cave, and on into the present and future. I spent lots of nights in halls across the county hearing Jerry croak out Robert Hunter’s tales of stagger lee and the the jones gang.  |
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Post by urbino on Oct 5, 2022 23:30:38 GMT -5
I'll check out the Crypt Sessions. And Little Sadie is a favorite in all its iterations. Stagger Lee is an interesting one, because we know its earliest date. You can see it evolve from not long after it originated, through blues guys, through Woody Guthrie, through the Grateful Dead (who added Delia and a well-placed gunshot), through Nick Cave, and on into the present and future. "Stagger Lee" is always primarily a Mississippi John Hurt song, to me. There's no shortage of renditions, though, for sure. |
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Post by terrapinflyer on Oct 6, 2022 11:01:05 GMT -5
I'll check out the Crypt Sessions. And Little Sadie is a favorite in all its iterations. Stagger Lee is an interesting one, because we know its earliest date. You can see it evolve from not long after it originated, through blues guys, through Woody Guthrie, through the Grateful Dead (who added Delia and a well-placed gunshot), through Nick Cave, and on into the present and future. I spent lots of nights in halls across the county hearing Jerry croak out Robert Hunter’s tales of stagger lee and the the jones gang. Just the Northeast for me. Only got a couple of Stagger Lees, though. And one pre-coma Little Sadie with Garcia/Kahn that's seared into my brainpan. JGB did a lot of traditional songs, as Dave knows. Hunter certainly had the pulse of Americana and wider folk traditions, making his words almost timeless. |
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Post by terrapinflyer on Oct 6, 2022 11:03:15 GMT -5
I'll check out the Crypt Sessions. And Little Sadie is a favorite in all its iterations. Stagger Lee is an interesting one, because we know its earliest date. You can see it evolve from not long after it originated, through blues guys, through Woody Guthrie, through the Grateful Dead (who added Delia and a well-placed gunshot), through Nick Cave, and on into the present and future. "Stagger Lee" is always primarily a Mississippi John Hurt song, to me. There's no shortage of renditions, though, for sure. Sometimes I think of some songs as definitive versions, too. Mississippi John Hurt has a lot of them! |
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