I made this hour-long programme for London’s Resonance FM, using the audio from my Unprepared To Die interviews with all the people pictured above. The station will give it its first airing on January 28 at 8pm GMT, with a repeat the following day at 9am.
Londoners can hear Resonance on 104.4 FM (or DAB), while everyone else listens online. After that, you’ll find it archived on the station’s Mixcloud pages.
We’ve called the programme Killer Songs, and I use it to briefly tell the story of five classic murder ballads from my book, playing some of these songs’ best recordings as we go along. All this is interspersed with my interviewees’ insights and comments on the same five ballads. They bring a songwriter’s eye to discussing these tales’ endless fascination and reveal what it’s like to inhabit a classic murder ballad as you record it yourself.
You’ll find a full playlist for the programme’s music below, together with some thumbnail biographies of my interviewees. Many thanks to Resonance FM producer Michael Umney for making the whole project possible.
Music
1) Stagger Lee – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1996).
2) Stagger Lee – Lloyd Price (1958).
3) Stagger Lee – Billy’s Band (2007).
4) The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll – Bob Dylan (1963).
5) The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Live) – Bob Dylan (1975).
6) Knoxvile Girl – The Louvin Brothers (1956).
7) Knoxville Girl – The Handsome Family (2002).
8) Tom Dooley – The Kingston Trio (1958).
9) Tom Dooley – Steve Earle (2002).
10) The Murder of the Lawson Family – The Carolina Buddies (1930).
11) Murder of the Lawson Family – Dave Alvin (2000).
12) Tom Dooley – Snakefarm (1999).
Interviewees (in order of speaking)
1) Mick Harvey: Guitarist with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds from 1983-2009. Played on the band’s classic 1996 recording of Stagger Lee.
2) Laura Cantrell: Country music artist and former WFMU radio DJ. Recorded Poor Ellen Smith for her 2005 album Humming By The Flowered Vine.
3) Jon Langford: Founder member of UK cowpunk legends The Mekons. Helmed Bloodshot Records’ 2002 compilation The Executioner’s Last Songs.
4) Dave Alvin: Founded The Blasters with his brother Phil in 1979. Recorded Murder of the Lawson Family for his 2000 solo album Public Domain.
5) Billy Bragg: Mixes protest with a fine line in love songs. Borrowed Dylan’s Hattie Carroll structure for his own The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie.
6) Ralph Stanley. Half of the great bluegrass duo The Stanley Brothers. Cut Knoxville Girl with brother Carter on 1969’s The Stanley Brothers Live.
7) Ralph Stanley II: Son of the above. Sang and played with Ralph senior’s band The Clinch Mountain Boys in the 1990s.
8) Bob Shane: Last surviving member of The Kingston Trio’s original line-up. Their 1958 recording of Tom Dooley was a global chart smash.