The Waco Girl

Posted by on April 18, 2012 No comments

This is the creepiest murder ballad I have ever heard:

The Waco Girl (mp3)

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.afc.afcts.4101b1/default.html

I think what is getting to me about it is the striking until the gore covers the ground.
And the tossing and turning of the murderer that night in bed.

The song just seems really intimate. More so than Tom Dula or Omie Wise or Rose Connelly, etc.

I think that what it is, is that in most of these, the killer comes clean and says “go hang me or kill me for I am the man” or otherwise indicates that they deserve to die. But in this one, it is kind of about the killer’s fear of dying. And he does not come clean about his guilt.

About Elvis

Posted by on April 13, 2012 No comments

20 – About_elvis – About_elvis

 

That Aggravatin’ Beauty, Lulu Wall

Posted by on April 2, 2012 No comments

The Library of Congress website is full of this kind of stuff:

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.afc.afcts.4129a1/default.html

That Aggravatin’ Beauty, Lulu Wall (mp3)
Two Convicts (mp3)

None of it is easy to find or navigate. I scraped about 4,000 recordings and tagged them with meaningful tags for my own use. Let me know if you want a copy.

Waves of Joy

Posted by on March 30, 2012 No comments

Waves of Joy

Waves of Joy
Songs that win
Shaped Notes
Edited By R.E. Winsett

About

Posted by on March 29, 2012 No comments

Beginning in 2002 rockmessiah.com was a website used to promote the novelty band “The Rock and Roll Patrol”. http://web.archive.org/web/20030409082345/http://rockmessiah.com

It quickly evolved into a social networking site where users with handles like “Liberational” and “Neoconquistador” compared each other to Hitler as they discussed the issues of the day.

With reviews of reviews: http://web.archive.org/web/20041023232956/http://rockmessiah.com/all_reviews.php

Open Letters: http://web.archive.org/web/20041024054205/http://www.rockmessiah.com/open_letter.php

And eventually forums, blogs and facebook style wikis.

But inevitably it crumpled under the weight of its own greatness.

And since it doesn’t look like I have much of a chance in this election cycle: http://web.archive.org/web/20040220013455/http://paulforpresident.com/why_vote.html

It seems about time to try to add some serious content to a website. Which is forthcoming.