Scene from The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Greetings, faithful Murder Ballad Monday readers!  Greetings, completely new readers who have just stumbled on to the blog!  We are now on a temporary hiatus.  It’s time to let the field lie fallow.  It’s time to re-charge the batteries, re-fill the reservoir.  Pick your metaphor.  We’re taking a holiday.  

Regular posts will resume on the first Monday of 2013.  We may have an “Interlude” post or two along the way, and we’ll continue to put material up from time to time on our Facebook page, but will be stepping off the weekly cycle of new posts.  The good news is that when we start back, we should have some new voices in the mix and go into some new musical territory.  

After 11 months of posts, and over 150 individual entries, we’re not lacking for material.  Our initial list of potential songs to explore figured to last us for over two years of posts, and that list only grows.  Furthermore, our audience has expanded dramatically, and in meaningful ways, as we’re now getting over 20,000 page views a month.  

We’ve had some really interesting discoveries over the past year, and some great connections with musicians and music fans, among others.  Shout-outs to Rorey Carroll, Michael Lewis, Anthony Ladesich, Julyan Davis, Jo Freya, Richard Shindell, Adam McCulloch, Rafe Hollister, Geraldine Hollett of The Once, and others.  Apologies to those I’ve forgotten.  Greetings to the Deadheads, the Hurt fans, Adam Arcuragi “Death Gospel” fans, and others who have picked up our posts and taken them viral.  Thanks to Sing Out! magazine and The Village–Sirius Satellite Radio’s folk station, and others, for amplifying our work.

Special thanks to my co-contributors: Pat, Shaleane, and Tom.  This enterprise would not have been possible without your creative partnership, and I’m deeply grateful for all that you’ve been willing to share here in this virtual space.  

In the meantime…

Until we return, please feel free to dig back through our year of posts.  Add a comment or a question.  We’re grateful for your thoughtful contributions.  If you have a recommendation for some new material, send it to us at our Facebook page or at our email address:  murderballadmonday [at] gmail [dot] com.  Or make a comment on this post.

Also, please spread the word!  Recommend the blog to friends.  Connect with us on Facebook.

Stay tuned.  We may have some other opportunities to join the conversation.  Thanks again, everybody, for reading, listening, and commenting.  We’ll be back in action early in the new year.

Finally, lest a post go by without some good music:




“Folk Bloodbath” by Josh Ritter (Spotify)  [Something’s fishy with the embed code, so I posted the link.]