âAt first I suspected somethingâ Tucked in between covers of Bruce Springsteenâs âJohnny 99â and Norman Blakeâs âBilly Grayâ on Mark Erelli and Jeffrey Foucaultâs excellent murder ballad compilation, Seven Curses, is the short, mysterious âTom Merritt.â It is a song of … Continue reading →
It was written on the walls and windowshades Mark Erelli and Jeffrey Foucaultâs album Seven Curses leads my list of favorite murder ballad albums. Itâs not terribly traditional. Oddly enough, itâs not even especially grim. Erelli and Foucaultâs selections are primarily … Continue reading →
Old West saloon Iâm halfway tempted to try a few stiff shots of tequila before writing this post. OK, perhaps more than halfway tempted. I havenât yet gotten to the point of the having the first, but perhaps youâll be … Continue reading →
Jeffrey Foucault and Mark Erelli This is the second post this week on Norman Blakeâs âBilly Gray.â  Read the first here. Outlaw Rhetoric That I havenât read Aristotleâs Poetics yet is a gap in my education.  Iâll need to get right … Continue reading →
Woody Guthrie would have been one hundred years old this Saturday, July 14, 2012. Â Certainly there will be a great deal of writing, speaking, and (as no doubt Woody would have wanted it) singing to celebrate his centennial. Â Thatâs as … Continue reading →
As I mentioned in my first post, thereâs no small controversy over what, exactly, âPowderfingerâ is about. Aided by the abundance of specific details in the lyrics, especially about that boat, almost all interpretations nod to Youngâs political sensibilities in … Continue reading →
