Murder Ballads by Anthony Ladesich
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| Anthony Ladesich by Jill Toyoshiba, The Kansas City Star
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As I pointed out in my first post this week, Anthony Ladesich is not only a filmmaker but as musician as well. And it turns out, he likes to write – or, perhaps more accurately – often finds himself writing murder ballads.
“I *love* murder ballads… I write a lot of them. I sing others… it’s just part of who I am.”
Though the majority of our recent conversation revolved around his outstanding short film Two Sisters, we did find some time to talk about the murder ballad genre and some of Ladesich’s original compositions.
We covered his early history with murder ballads in the first post this week about the movie (so please click back to check it out!) but we have yet to hear any of his original songs.
So, as part of what we hope becomes an occasional series showcasing contemporary artists and their original murder ballads, we offer you these great compositions!
“Forty Five”
Ladesich’s typical compositions concerning our genre of choice are, in his words, “jilted lover murder ballads”. An excellent example comes from his old band Pendergast in the form of the song “Forty Five”, from the album Between the Bottle and Pulpit (2007). It’s a song Ladesich often performs solo.
“Forty Five” – Pendergast (Spotify)
An interesting take on the genre; this murder ballad spends all its energy on the lead up to the murder and none on the act itself. And, atypically, the intended target presumably is a man – the would-be killer is going to his ex-girlfriend’s lover’s place, not hers – though one gets the sense that if he finds her there too, she’s done for. Still, it’s ambiguous – and since the song invites you to be inside the killer’s head, I suppose you get to decide for yourself what might happen!
“In the Cut”
Another of Ladesich’s murder ballads is “about a robbery gone right, that leads to a murder.” “In the Cut” was inspired by living in an impoverished neighborhood in Kansas City. The scenes that played out around him daily worked their way in to this sad story of two ne’er-do-wells, starting with their meeting outside a Dollar General store (which gave the song its original title) and ending with, well, only one ne’er-do-well. (I’m reminded thematically at least of both “Jack Straw” and “Me and My Uncle“, though this song takes a very different approach than both.)
Here are the lyrics (as I hear them at least) – “In the Cut”
This video of Ladesich performing the song comes from what I believe is the first Murder Ballad Ball in 2009, a now annual event in Kansas City sponsored by the Midwest Music Foundation – the fourth of which we hear is coming up this December! (Stay tuned for more info.)
For my tastes, the most compelling of the three songs presented here is “North Fork”. It’s also the hardest to listen to because the story is just terribly sad. Ladesich’s rough musical setting brings that out even more strongly. While the music may not be traditional, everything else about the song strikes me as fitting very much in the traditional milieu of the Anglo-American murder ballad. The essential back story is there, the act of murder itself is truly awful, and the consequences are profound. It digs – six feet deep – like a traditional murder ballad.
Ladesich explains, “”North Fork” is about infanticide. The man’s wife dies in child birth and he can’t take the thought of being reminded of his lost love every day – so he drowns the daughter in the river as he crosses on the ferry.”
And the story behind his creation of the song is equally compelling. In one sense, the song didn’t just come from him.
“I started it because I bought a guitar made in the ’30s that was owned by a man that was a ferry boat captain and was also horribly depressed. He took his life and the family put the guitar away until they decided to sell it… I love old guitars, and I saw it on Craigslist in Kansas City… I met this guy in a parking lot and he told me the story… I couldn’t pass up a story like that. It’s just a spooky instrument and I bought it. It’s haunted.”
Here are the haunting lyrics, and the tune is linked below. The guitar on the recording is the one owned by the captain.