Harris and the Mare
With Pancho having met his match in the deserts down in Mexico, this week we turn to the north country, and an Ontario mill town, and a song inspired by a story overheard in a bar. Stan Rogers, penned “Harris … Continue reading →
Ken Bigger
Ken Bigger is a writer based in the Midwest. He co-founded Murder Ballad Monday in 2012.
I’m looking for my fortune and it ain’t in Illinois
Pancho’s Stepchildren“Pancho and Lefty” has been a foray into a more Western genre of murder ballad, building on Pat’s discussion of “Jack Straw,” I suppose. The Wikipedia entry on murder ballads cites Olive Burt’s 1958 article, “The Minstrelsy of Murder,” which … Continue reading →
Outlaws, Bandits, and Troubadours
Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt After such a long post last time, I plan for this one to be long on music and short on text. If there’s a narrative to capture here, it’s that I think “Pancho and … Continue reading →
Pancho and Lefty
Walking Man, by Alberto Giacometti A Work of Betrayal I’m about to spill a good bit of ink, figuratively speaking, on a song that is only around 270 words long (including repeated words). I want to (re)introduce you to “Pancho … Continue reading →
The Ballad of Hollis Brown
“Ex-Farm Family, now on WPA.” Photo credit: Dorothea Lange. Farm Security Administration, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library Archives. In regard to “Fair Ellender” – the subject of this blog’s first post – I suggested that the Brown Girl’s murderous act … Continue reading →
My heart it lies on him, it will not remove
The Lass of Loch Royal As Hamish Henderson noted in the link we discussed in the post that started this week with the deception May Margaret’s mother perpetrates on Willie matches that found in “Lord Gregory” (lyrics) or “The Lass of … Continue reading →
April, May (Margaret), and June
River Clyde, near Abington Drawn into the Clyde Water My introduction to “Drowned Lovers” began with hearing a spare bit of guitar playing, opening up with regular, almost transmitter-like pulses as the tenth track on Kate Rusby‘s solo debut album, … Continue reading →
Mother’s Malison/Clyde Water/Drowned Lovers
The River Clyde “Mother’s Malison” (Child 216) If the first song discussed in this blog was about the potentially dire consequences of following the counsel of one’s parents instead of the counsel of one’s heart, this week we’ll show just how … Continue reading →
The quick and the dead
The Last Judgment by Jean Cousin The Man Comes Around This will be a relatively short post. Also, I’ll offer apologies to our loyal readers who may have seen some of what I’m about to discuss in comments to an earlier … Continue reading →
Why on earth did I ever let him go?
Mary Magdalene in the Grotto, by Jules-Joseph Lefebvre The Ballad of Mary Magdalene This one is perhaps the biggest stretch, but as you may have noticed before, I’m interested in how artists tell stories around a central, more well-known story. … Continue reading →