Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about “Sam Stone” the soldier junky daddy and “Donald … Continue reading →
Happy New Year, everyone! We asked our esteemed group of regular reviewers to fire off a list of what they thought the best albums of 2013. As we dash out the door for the year, we’re happy to share a … Continue reading →
Introduction A few weeks back I assembled a list of my ‘essential eleven’ traditional murder ballads. While we here at Murder Ballad Monday usually delve deeply into one ballad or theme, we saw some possible value in a lighter ‘list-based’ … Continue reading →
Introduction We here at Murder Ballad Monday are soon fixing to close our second year of writing about our topic of choice! Don’t worry; we have a few more weeks to go before we get to our holiday hiatus, and … Continue reading →
GENE CLARK Here Tonight | The White Light Demos Omnivore Recordings www.omnivorerecordings.com Heralded in the mid-1960s as America’s Beatles, the Byrds – co-founded by Clark – struck pay-dirt right out-of-the-gate with their ringing version … Continue reading →
DENNY FREEMAN Diggin’ On Dylan V8 www.dennyfreeman.com Diggin’ On Dylan is kind of a postscript for Denny Freeman’s five years on the road playing guitar in Bob Dylan’s road band, offering instrumental takes of … Continue reading →
Boxer Davey Moore, immediately after the March 21, 1963 fight with Sugar Ramos, beforecollapsing into a coma and dying 75 hours later. “I did not want to hurt Moore. In the ring the fighters are partners. They put on the … Continue reading →
Dave Van Ronk, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, and Chad Mitchell(this photo looks a little off to me, I can’t vouch for its authenticity) As I mentioned in the first post this week, my friend, Cayce, put me up … Continue reading →
Morning Sun by Edward Hopper (1952) When I meet new people, it’s just a matter of time–sometimes more, sometimes less–before I mention this murder ballad hobby of mine. I recently started a new job. (You may have inferred as much from … Continue reading →
Bob Dylan, 1978 “You can do anything with your voice if you put your mind to it. I mean, you can become a ventriloquist or you can become an imitator of other people’s voices. I’m usually just stuck with my own … Continue reading →
