When Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds recorded Murder Ballads in 1996, I thought it was scary but incomplete. He managed to capture the horror but not always the beauty of this folk genre. With respect to Nick, I have attempted to put together my own playlist from a collection I have assembled over many years. This group of songs was winnowed down from a first pass of about 60.

This music is going to be very difficult for some of you to listen to. For one thing the voices and styles are sometimes “old timey” and tinny, occasionally shrill and the Sixties artists are not always those considered Dylan-cool. My children call most of these songs “mom’s wailing music” and run out of the room clutching their ears. The other barrier will be the shockingly violent content: stabbings, drowning, lopped-off heads and so many bad, bad boyfriends. Why would such a seemingly nice woman be attracted to such messy music?

These songs are stark in their depictions of good and evil and life and death, but they are also subtle and deeply complex. They show people who long for love to save them or elevate them to a change in status and prosperity. Fate or betrayal rips this hope away and they are left with heartache and acrid clarity, sometimes in their last moments. These stories delve into the dark and sad places of my psyche, revealing timeless loneliness and primal connection.

The following is the order they were meant to be played, however my file is a bit messy as well.

1. Bad Moon Rising/ Thea Gilmore
2. Omie Wise/ Doc Watson
3. Wind and Rain/ Gillian Welch
4. Carry Me Home/ Hem
5. Lady Margaret/ Cassie Franklin (From the film Cold Mountain)
6. The Greenwood Sidie (The Cruel Mother)/ Ian and Sylvia
7. Pretty Polly/ Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson
8. Caleb Meyer/ Gillian Welch
9. The Brown Girl/ Hedy West
10. Mary Hamilton/ Joan Baez
11. Wednesday 3 A.M./ Simon and Garfunkel
12. The Jealous Lover/ Ian and Sylvia
13. Polly Von/ Peter, Paul and Mary
14. The Rooster Moans/ Iron and Wine
15. Bohemian Rhapsody/ Queen
16. Tom Dooley/ Snakefarm
17. Ramblin’ Boy/ Tom Paxton
18. Pretty Saro/ Iris Dement
19. Not While I’m Around/ From Sweeny Todd (1979)

Liner notes:

1. Folk music traditionally plays very loose with gender. Men sing as women and women sing as men, the story can be completely separate from the voice. Sometimes the gender of the protagonist was changed as the songs got passed along to the new generation. The resulting shifts can lead to interesting plot or theme changes when you compare different versions. As an example, this cover has a completely different feel when sung by a woman.
2. Listen for the primary crime motivation about halfway through –- poor little Omie. These songs are rarely rushed; the storyteller has all the time in the world to layer in details.
3. This time the perpetrator is the sister. Of course the dark one. Epilogues are common in murder ballads, either to show punishment or a haunting redemption such as this.
4. I love this band. They somehow combine old and new with lush lyrics and instrumentation. This song hints of incest, patricide and long term abuse, but that’s just my interpretation. P.S. There is a weird space and tacked-on song at the end, just skip through.
5. A ghost song. I have a million versions of this song –- it is one of my favorites –- but this soundtrack version has a nifty pig/blood verse. This is one of many 16th- and 17th-century broadside ballads brought to America by the English, Irish and especially the Scottish.
6. An Appalachian Medea song with a creepy ending in which mom has a vision of psychotic regret.
7. This song is not pretty in spite of the name. But the dread evoked by Polly’s increasing awareness is chilling. It is worth enduring the scratchy background.
8. Finally the girl wins!
9. If you only listen to one song, this is it. Murder ballads do not get any better than this. It is Shakespearean in scope. Hedy’s voice and 5-string banjo may take a minute to get used to and there are many, many verses, but hang in there. Also, don’t be put off by the term “brown girl.” This song dates back to the 17th century and is a statement on class not race. Elender is an aristocratic lady with a title but no wealth; she is characterized by the pale pallor of one who is kept inside. The “brown girl” is a commoner whose family has earned rather than inherited their money and land. The girl of lower social status is derisively reminded of her peasant past by associating her with the complexion of one who would work outside in the sun (the inverse of the tanned lady of leisure in today’s culture). Thomas’ mother would want him to marry money; the “brown girl’s” family would have wanted a title. It all ends badly anyway.
10. So lovely, also about class. In this, the murderess is made noble by her own victimization and servitude. She faces her fate with grace and courage, clearly admired by the narrator.
11. No one dies, but once again remorse is an important element in many of these songs.
12. Accidental and devastating. Listen for the moral at the end, very useful.
13. A similar story to the above except even more accidental. This is a nice example of vintage Peter, Paul and Mary long before their current PBS feel-good personae. Exquisite harmonies of voice and guitars and unexpected emotion.
14. What happens when you kill your girlfriend, boys? You end up on this train. Not good.
15. In this context, this song fits perfectly. Freddy can wail like the best of them.
16. Snakefarm made just one album; a great mix of very old and new. They are doing exactly what the British Isles immigrants did once they got to America, making traditional old country stories relevant for their new context and instruments.
17. This time the culprit is the Depression and “The Man.” The homoerotic/male friendship themes are unusual and heartbreaking.
18. This is my favorite song of all time and I think Iris’ version is one of the best. It is not technically a murder ballad although love is lost. Once again she/he is kept from true love by class and the need for money. The sense of longing here is almost palpable. I also think that the gender switch gives this song added layers of meaning.
19. Unrequited love, betrayal, buckets of blood and everyone dies at the end, why not a bit of Sondheim!