The Evening Sun

"Blue Yodel #3 (Evening Sun Yodel)" by Jimmie Rodgers  Throughout the course of the history of the blues, several artists have tackled "that evening sun" and what stands to happen when it drops below the horizon.  For Jimmie Rodgers, there is no question to what the evening sun represents.  Diagnosed at 24 with TB, he was in a race with the reaper and struggled to complete a life cut short by disease.  Much like his counterpart in Romantic poetry, John Keats, Rodgers used the specter of death to urge his prolificacy in his field.  A man of the traveling show,the railroad, the stage... Rodgers' life was lived well, for he knew that when that evening sun went down, he could very well be "on his last go 'round."

"St. Louis Blues" by Chuck Berry

The "Evening Sun" lyric was not created by Rodgers, however.  As was true to his wandering, hobo lifestyle, he adapted the line from works he had heard through his travels.  In fact, the first recording of the line "I hate to see the evening sun go down" is found in W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," arguably one of the most famous jazz compositions of all time.  Recorded in 1914, the lyric predates Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #3" by nearly fifteen years.  In Handy's song, the singer hates "to see the evening sun go down /  because the woman I love has done left this town."  Handy's song has been covered by a Who's Who of  musicians, such as Emmett Miller, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and many, many more.  However, one of the more raucous renditions was (and still is) performed by St. Louis' native son, Chuck Berry.

"St. Louis Blues" by The Pine Hill Haints

We can thank Southern Alabama for many things -- Mardi Gras, keeping the SEC competitive, Brick Pit BBQ, etc. -- but the Pine Hill Haints should be at the top of that list.  Lead vocalist / songwriter Jamie  Barrier channels Rodgers with his opening lyric much like a medium would summon a specter in a séance.  But he "hates to see that evening sun go down" for much different reasons than Handy or the Brakeman.  The Haints, who describe themselves as "Alabama Ghost Music," are rounded out by Barrier's wife Kat, Matt Bakula, and a rotating set of hyper-talented musicians with skills on rustic instruments such as the washtub bass, saw, banjo and mandolin.  The music shrouds itself with hints of  horror, but without ever descending into camp or novelty.  It comes from a world shrouded in Spanish moss and Southern secrets, ghost stories put to music, keeping us afraid of the dark, after the evening sun has long gone down.

"When the Evening Sun Goes Down" by the Carter Family

If Jimmie Rodgers is revered by country musicians as "the man who started it all," then a significant place in music history should be reserved for the man who discovered him: Ralph Peer.  In the 1920s   Peer, who already had revolutionized music at OKeh Records by recording "race music," developed an affinity for what he termed "hillbilly music," a developing genre somewhere apart from gospel and blues.  He left OKeh and found himself at the Victor Talking Machine Company, where he found he could work with newer technology that had the ability to record softer music -- songs with guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, etc -- and facilitate his affinity for Appalachian music.  Knowing that much of the rural talent would be unable to afford to travel to New York City, he announced that Victor would set up a recording studio in Bristol, Tennessee.  Musicians came from every hill and hollow and Peer recorded 76 songs by        19 performers over 12 days.  Since this marked the professional recording debuts of both Jimmie Rodgers and southwest Virginia's Carter Family, the event is known as "The Big Bang of Country Music."
The moralistic and wholesome sound of A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter not only struck Peer, but the country as well.  For years they recorded soulful ballads culled straight from their region, thereby   preserving scores of compositions that otherwise would have been lost to time.  In the Carter Family's rendition of "When the Evening Sun Goes Down," they sing sweetly of when they "cross life's other side / [and] cross the great divide."  Peace, smiling faces, and starry crowns await them after their evening sun  goes down in a song that accurately reflects their values and temperaments.

"In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down" by Lead Belly

 Another invaluable figure in American music was John A. Lomax.  Born a Texan, Lomax learned cowboy work songs as a child and set about collecting them.  In the 1930s, he expanded his love of songs to encompass folk songs and American ballads, particularly those sung by African-Americans.  As the radio began to secure its place in the fabric of the nation, Lomax feared these songs would be lost.  He struck a deal with the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Songs and took to the road to collect these songs before they were lost.  Lomax understood that prisons and work farms preserved these songs best, and it was at Angola State Penitentiary that he met Hudie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, a three-time loser from Texas doing a stretch for killing a man in a knife fight.  In 1934, Lomax helped Lead Belly obtain a pardon by presenting the governor with a recording of "Goodnight Irene."  Lead Belly then chauffeured Lomax as they traveled the South collecting songs, sometimes camping at roadsides to save money. Eventually, Lomax began managing Lead Belly's career, bolstering attendance at his lectures with performances by the man known as the "King of the 12-String Guitar."  While helping preserve America's folk traditions, he also established a major star of the 30's as well.
Lead Belly's rendition of "The Evening Sun" features a man who knows that loneliness lies at the other    end of dusk, due to the departure of his woman for another man.  At the song's end, it is he who decides to leave for a better, happier life, when the sun goes down. 

"In the Evening the Sun is Going Down" by Lightnin' Hopkins

Just as the "howl" was an example of a variation of the yodel, the "moan" also serves as another interpretation of the popular refrain device.  A moan is a heartfelt and soulful refrain from the vocalist, often deep and basso with a crescendo often performed in place of a yodel.  This technique is most commonly associated with black country bluesmen from Texas, as elements of their style of "country blues" from the East Texas cotton fields are mingled with those of the Delta bluesmen.  This amalgamation of style becomes possible thanks to the area's recording center in Dallas, in an urban warehouse district known as Deep Ellum.  Many musicians recorded in Deep Ellum -- Blind Lemon  Jefferson ("Black Snake Moan"), Lead Belly ("Moanin'"), Bessie Smith ("Moan, You Moaners") and many, many more.  Lightnin' Hopkins was one of the more polished performers to come out of the East Texas farms, and his casual moan pairs nicely with his frantic fits of smooth guitar picking and soulful voice. 

"When the Evening Sun Goes Down" by Cliff Carlisle

In 1934, Jimmie Rodgers' evening sun finally went down.  Just as most of the artists featured here have  seen their evening sun set.  But as evidenced by the resurgence in their material, by the efforts of the men and women who run music Halls of Fame across our beautiful, sunny South, and by those carrying the torches that men like Ralph Peer and the Lomax's lit, the sun will rise again and with it shall arrive a new group of stars.

Jimmie Rodgers' Blue Yodel

Yodeling Cowboy" by Jimmie Rodgers
The yodel traveled many, many miles and through several cultures before it entered the tubercular lungs of Jimmie Rodgers.  As the yodel left his lips, it became ingrained in the very fabric of America's folklore and influenced many other artists as well.  The technique can be traced back to the Central Alps, where Alpine folk music developed from a system of communication between villages and villagers.  Its presence in Central Africa also hints at another possible source for its entry into Americana.  But arguably yodeling's most famous ambassador is Jimmie Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman."
Rodgers' unique singing style and his poetic verse are reflections of a short but well-lived life.  The canon of his music is lengthy and his sphere of influence is infinite, but his mastery is perhaps best observed with his Blue Yodels.  Between 1927, when he recorded the instant hit "Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)" and 1933, Rodgers recorded thirteen Blue Yodels, each with their own title, theme, and imagery.  Over time, these songs have been recorded by many of America's top recording artists, from the Carter Family, to Bill Monroe, to Doc Watson.  The thirteen Blue Yodels best capture his influences, what he's influenced, and his profound journey.

"Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)" by Bob Wills

Poetry has existed for ages, its roots traced to and lost in antiquity.  Over the millennia, its rules and forms and structures have changed and adapted.  I will spare the ink in this pen from having to endure an argument validating the Blues as the poetry of the American South, but the "Blue Yodels" of Jimmie Rodgers are excellent microcosms that demonstrate poetic value in these handful of songs made famous by the Singing Brakeman. Each song is told in measured time -- two half-notes sounded by a pluck of the bass string then followed with a strum.  Each individual song captures an image rather than tells a story.  And each composition is infused with a melancholy undertone behind machismo and bravado.  They have a rhyme scheme, most often AABA, ABABCB, or a derivative thereof, and each stanza is punctuated by a sad, heartfelt yodeling refrain.  The lyrics are poignant and bursting with double-meaning, sometimes sexual, other times violent, and commonly dealing with the shadow of death that Rodgers faced every day.  To call Jimmie Rodgers the poet of the 1930s South would not be a stretch at all, and his "Blue Yodels" show him at the top of his craft.

"Blue Yodel #2 (My Lovin' Gal Lucille)" by Frank Kamplain

There may be no bigger musical influence on Rodgers -- and for that matter, the country -- than the traveling medicine show.  From the early days of the Republic, long before the invention and popularity of the radio, the best source for free musical entertainment arrived with so-called medicine men hawking their tonics, nostrums, salves and liniments.  The scope of this music widely varied, but many well known entertainers -- Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Bob Wills, just to name a scant few -- got their start with these shows.  Jimmie Rodgers joined his first traveling show at the age of thirteen.  The tour would travel across a region, stopping in the towns that dotted the highway.  At each stop, the show would begin with a raucous music act, designed to whip the potential customers -- or "tip" -- into a frenzy for the salesman, who would then take over the stage to tout the virtues of his miracle cure or snake oil.  Two popular acts in a medicine show were family bands and minstrel shows.  Often done in blackface, the minstrel show would incorporate aspects (or caricatures) of black life, most notably their singing style.  One of the more novel aspects of black song gained popularity at these shows: the yodel.

"Blue Yodel #3 (Evening Sun Yodel)" by IIIrd Time Out

This rendition of Rodgers' "Evening Sun Yodel" sounds directly from the hills and hollers of Eastern Tennessee, and the powerful yodel and brilliant accompaniment do justice to a Rodgers recording.  However, it lacks the aspect of "Blue Yodel #3" that makes it the most compelling: Jimmie Rodgers' final verse about the Evening Sun.  In blues, folk, and other early American music genres, the "hanging phrase" or "maverick phrase" has become one of the more recognizable devices.  These are popular lyrics that reappear throughout different compositions throughout history, each artist claiming it as his or her own.  Examples like "if you like my peaches, shake my tree" or other innuendo are popular, but Rodgers' use of the line "I hate to see the evening sun go down" transforms a popular hanging phrase           into something more chilling and heartfelt.  The line, popularized in W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" spawned several renditions and homages to the evening sun, including Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #3."  Further exploration of this phenomenon will be offered at the end of this disk.

"Blue Yodel #4 (California Blues)" by Gene Autry

 Jimmie Rodgers is often referred to as "The Father of Country Music" and for good reason.  One of the subgenres most influenced by him is that of The Singing Cowboy.  The lazy, melancholy strains of his yodeling refrains fit well with the blossoming country music genre and soon imitators sprang up from everywhere.  One of the more prolific of these was Gene Autry.  While the Singing Cowboy existed before Autry -- many argue that Carl T. Sprague of Texas was the originator of the archetype -- he certainly popularized it more so than others.  Autry's foray into film made the Singing Cowboy world famous and  inspired a legion of others, including Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Bob Wills, and many, many more.

"Blue Yodel #5 (It's Raining Here)" by Jimmie Rodgers

Another major influence on Jimmie Rodgers' life was his time spent with the railroad.  Traveling across   the South as a brakeman, he learned many different musical styles and traditions from many different cultures.  Hobos and rail workers offered instruction with the guitar, and his days spent "waiting on a train" offered him plenty of time to perfect his songwriting craft.  His career with the railroad was tragically cut short in 1924  when, at 27 years old, he contracted tuberculosis and became physically unfit for life on the railroad.

"Blue Yodel #6 (She Left Me This Mornin')" by Wanda Jackson

Wanda Jackson was born in Oklahoma City in 1937 and by the time she was 22, she was known as "The Queen of Rockabilly."  Influenced by Spade Cooley, Bob Wills, and other country musicians, she took her blend of rock, blues, and country to the Top 40.  Fifty years later, she teamed up with Jack White to produce The Party Ain't Over, an awesome album which demonstrates Jackson's stunning versatility. The genres that defined her life -- rock, blues, country, and even Christian gospel -- sound as fresh and as new in her eighties as they did when she was in her prime.  The album includes her version of Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #6 (She Left Me This Mornin')," and you can hear the weariness and despair in the word "tornado" that only an Oklahoman can summon.

"Blue Yodel #7 (Anniversary Yodel)" by Doc Watson

                I was a stranger passing through your town

               I was a stranger passing through your town

               When I asked you for a favor, good Gal, you turned me down.

                                                                -yodel-

                You may see me talking, walking down that railroad track

                You may see me talking, walking down that railroad track

                But good Gal, you've done me wrong and I ain't never coming back... is it true, Honey?

                                                                -yodel-

                Honey, I'm so lonesome, I don't know what to do

                I'm so lonesome, I don't know what to do

                The way you treat me, Mamma, I hope you're lonesome too, Lord-Lord-Lord

                                                                -yodel-

                I rode that Southern, I rode that L&N, yes I have

                Lord, I've rode that old Southern, I've rode that L&N

                And if the police don't get me, I'm gonna ride them again

                                                                -Yodel-

                Look a-here Mister Brakeman, don't put me off your train

                Please, Mister Brakeman, don't put me off of your train

                'Cause the weather's cold and it looks like it's gonna rain

                                                                -Yodel-

                I like Mississippi, a fool about Tennessee, hey -- hey

                I like Mississippi, fool about Tennessee

                But these Texas women 'bout got the best of me

                                                                -Yodel-

              

"Blue Yodel #8 (Muleskinner Blues)" by Scott H. Biram
"Muleskinner Blues" provided many artists with a hit song, especially Bill Monroe who made it one of his signature tunes, and even rewrote it later in his career as "The New Muleskinner Blues."  One of the major changes Monroe offered was to remove the racial undertones in the song, which dramatically changed its character.  The racial element -- the song begins with "Shine" asking "Captain" for a job as his new muleskinner -- predates Rodgers' recording.  Two years previous in 192_, Tom Dickson begins his "Labor Blues" with the same introduction, but the lyrics, images, and nature of the song differ wildly afterward. 

 In Rodgers' day, a muleskinner, or mule driver, commanded a team of mules with little more than a whip and a broad sense of know-how.  Before the steam engine, mule teams were responsible for a large portion of overland shipping and delivery in areas surrounding difficult terrain.  Why this number had such popularity in Western and Appalachian culture is really no mystery.

"Blue Yodel #9 (Standin' on the Corner)" by the Jerry Garcia Band

Many artists throughout time have continued the legacy of "The Man Who Started It All," Jimmie Rodgers, by either furthering the genre he created or by performing their own renditions of his pieces. Jerry Garcia or the Grateful Dead fame does so with his version of "Blue Yodel #9."  However, many artists were touched by Rodgers directly and while he was still living and performing.  While those with whom he toured while in traveling shows may never be fully known, there are numerous "studio musicians" who joined him before going on to their own immortality.  He recorded with the Carter Family on several tracks.  Cliff Carlisle, master of the steel guitar, offered occasional accompaniment.  And on Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #9," his sad yodeling refrains were complemented by the trumpet of a relatively unknown local named Louis Armstrong.

"Blue Yodel #10 (Groundhog Rootin' in my Backyard)" by Willie Reed

It would be easier for a newcomer to the genre to draw a line from the Alpine yodel to the white country blues of Jimmie Rodgers.  However, this line would be incomplete without its significant pit stop in the black South, where it rambles for over half a century.  The earliest known American yodeling act was an 1840 minstrel family act and the most popular yodel for blacks was an 1869 number "Sleep Baby Sleep."    For decades, blacks expressed their blues with a yodeling accompaniment, and this was often included     around the turn of the century in traveling medicine shows.  When real blacks weren't employed for the minstrel portion, whites in blackface offered ersatz entertainment.  As the popularity of minstrel shows soared, two particular acts took off: songs sentimentalizing plantation life, and yodels.  Rodgers' exposure to this novelty, compounded by his travels and experiences with different cultures via his time on the railroad, led to his interest and skills with the device.  Circumstance led to Rodgers appearing to a studio session in Asheville, NC without his musicians, leaving him with only his guitar and "curlicues I can make with my throat."  Since black and white cultures had been kept separate for the most part, Rodgers' act was novel and his popularity rocketed, and he unknowingly bridged the two cultures by bringing the blues to the white man.

"Blue Yodel #11 (I've Got a Gal)" by Jimmie Rodgers

In 1920, seven years before he would record his first songs, Jimmie Rodgers met and married the daughter of a Methodist preacher, Carrie Williamson.  Within a year, they gave birth to a daughter,   Anita.  During the next four years, Rodgers traveled with either the railroads or the medicine shows in order to cobble together a living to provide for his family.  Despite the separation they endured and the macho, desperate persona that Rodgers adopted through song, his commitment to his family seemingly never wavered.  This is perhaps due to the instability in his own upbringing.  Rodgers was brought up in Meridian in a series of foster homes because of his mother's early death and his father's absence due to his life as a railroader.  The Rodgers family's ability and patience to persevere the hardscrabble    beginnings paid off, as they were able to enjoy the fruits of Jimmie's success and fame at a time when most families in Depression-era America were forced to struggle.  And as a testament to Jimmie's commitment to his family, the prolificacy of his later recordings is due to his desire to leave a legacy of means to Carrie and Anita after his death.  

"Blue Yodel #12 (Barefoot Blues)" by Hank Snow

I've heard "T for Texas" with the violence removed (by Bob Downen), "The Evening Sun Yodel" without the Evening Sun (IIIrd Time Out), and "Muleskinner Blues" without the racism (Bill Monroe), but Hank  Snow's stab at "Blue Yodel #12 (Barefoot Blues)" without the yodel is just too much.  But keep in mind: He's Canadian.

"Blue Yodel #13 (The Women Make a Fool Out of Me)" by Jimmie Rodgers

Nothing shaped Rodgers' life more than tuberculosis.  Had it not driven him from his dream job on the    railroad, he may never have focused on a career in entertainment.  Had it not driven him to the climes of  Asheville, NC, he may never have heard Emmett Miller, or met Ralph Peer, or recorded those first two songs which garnered the attention of the record companies and started his yodeling avalanche.  And without the disease that "works just like a cancer... to kill me by degrees," he never would have spun some of the most heart-wrenching, honest lyrics about facing "that evening sun."  He recorded fast and   often, knowing that his time was finite, racing the reaper.  Some say it was to preserve a legacy while            others insist he was earning as much money for his family as possible before his final train ride.  At any rate, in May of 1933, at only 35 years old, he recorded his final songs with a cot set up for him to rest between takes.  Two days after recording "Blue Yodel #13," he succumbed to his disease and died. 

"New Blue Yodel" by Mark Brine

 Jimmie Rodgers' impact obviously continued well after his death.  He could certainly be credited with     bringing the blues to the white man.  The genre called "country blues" may not have existed as it does without Rodgers.  Hank Williams, Woodie Guthrie, Ernest Tubb -- to name a scant few -- were direct descendants of Rodgers' magic.  But it was not whites alone that found success in the style and lyrics of  Rodgers.  Chester Burnett, a large black blues singer, tried to incorporate the yodel into his music inspired by Rodgers, but his unique voice could never get a yodel off the ground, sounding more like a  howl.  This led to the stage name by which he would forever be associated: Howlin' Wolf.  Lead Belly's style of music is an extension of Rodgers' "country blues," which were themselves inspired by African-   American blues.  Even in today's music, Jimmie Rodgers' presence can be felt in the melancholy yodeling refrains of the albums released nearly a century after "T for Texas" forever changed music.

"Dump Road Yodel" by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers

There is probably no better torchbearer for the old ways of Southern music and culture than Colonel J.D. Wilkes of Paducah, Kentucky.  His two musical acts -- Th' Legendary Shack Shakers and The Dirt Daubers -- manage a blend of Appalachian roots music, swamp-driven honkytonk and steampunk while continuing the traditions of those who came before him.  Murder ballads, cautionary tales, and yodels that fit right alongside the canon of the Carters, Rodgers, and others in Appalachian lore, such as "Dump Road Yodel" define an undying art in Wilkes' music.  Wilkes also pays direct tribute to Rodgers in an earlier album when he sings out "T for Tetanus / T for Typhoid B!"

"Goddamn Blue Yodel #7" by Slim Cessna's Auto Club

The alt-country supergroup Slim Cessna's Auto Club sings often about life in Rhode Island, claims a home base of Denver, but there is no doubt that the South rings hard through their music which is fueled  by the nuts and bolts of the Bible Belt, wicked gospels, murder ballads, and a complete love and mastery of the yodel.  The title is an obvious allusion to Rodgers and the imagery presented and the message  offered leave no doubt to the author's respect for the work of the Singing Brakeman.

"Warm Atlanta Day" by Rum Drum Ramblers

Where Western swing meets the Mississippi... St. Louis' independent music scene has provided such ragtime throwbacks as The Rum Drum Ramblers and Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three.  Rum Drum Ramblers' unique sound can be attributed to their background in punk music, but their extreme respect and mastery of the blues.  While paying appropriate homage to songs of the old time, they create their own music that would fit perfectly in the canon of music of eras gone by, while creating a sound all their own.  The soft, gentle yodel in "Warm Atlanta Day" replaces a mainstay in the Ramblers' music: the harmonica of member Ryan Koenig which at times can be toe-tappingly jazzy or tear-jerkingly lonely, but this song is incomplete without that yodel.  Koenig, Mat Wilson, and Joey Glenn do a great job of keeping the tradition of the yodel and bringing it into the 21st century and beyond.

The American Murder Ballad (continued)

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" by Lead Belly

The validity of this Lead Belly favorite as a murder ballad can be debatable at times, but investigations into the lyrics hear the singer asking the black girl for an alibi after the discovery of her husband's grisly remains. The song is laced with undertones of abuse and terror, and the woman's only account of her whereabouts -- "in the pines" -- is insufficient to clear her name of the murder and decapitation of her man.

"1st Shot Got Him" by The Washboard Chaz Blues Trio

In the days following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Algiers resident Henry Glover was shot in the chest by a rookie policeman. The attack was allegedly unprovoked, and Glover was able to escape despite his injuries. Later, a friend took him for help, and SWAT officers found them and beat them, and Glover died from his wounds. In an effort to conceal the act, police placed Glover's corpse in an abandoned vehicle and set fire to it. In 2010, five officers were found guilty of this crime. Washboard Chaz, a prolific New Orleans musician, tells this story to the beat of his namesake instrument.

"Banks of the Ohio" by Doc Watson and Bill Monroe

Another murderous Willy, this time leading his lover down to the river to propose to her. He is rebuffed and does not take it so well, slicing her throat with a knife and then, as she pleads for mercy, throws her into the river to drown. The next day, he's visited by the Sheriff who asks him to accompany him to the crime scene. Other versions reference the banks of the PeeDee River, which would lend another Carolina location.

"Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin

Mack the Knife's origins lie in the lyrics of Bertolt Brecht's composition, "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" for The Threepenny Opera. This tale recounts the bloody exploits of Mack, who unflinchingly amasses quite a body count. The entire last verse is but a list of women who've met their end at Mack's knife.

"Little Omie Wise" by Scott H Biram

The story of Naomi "Little Omie" Wise could very well be the historic inspiration for "The Banks of the Ohio." Omie was a girl growing up in Randolph County, North Carolina, and courting a young man, John Lewis. According to local lore, Omie got pregnant and John looked to take care of it in secrecy by luring her out of town. Locals first reported her missing in April 1808, and they found her body in an Asheboro river. Officials apprehended Lewis, but he escaped and later, when he was re-tried, it was for the escape and not for Omie's murder. Scott H Biram, "the dirty one-man band" from Texas offers an honest rendition of this story.

"Lethal Injection" by The Blackstone Valley Sinners
Set to the haunting vocals of BVS, "Lethal Injection" is the story of a man who kills his wife's adulterous lover in a Motel Six and awaits on Death Row. Much in the same vein of Bessie Smith's "'Lectric Chair," the protagonist of this murder ballad is aware that he is beyond redemption and, although he respects the intention of the priest trying to save his soul before his punishment, he knows the efforts are in vain.

"The Ballad of Charles Whitman"by Kinky Friedman

Murder ballads are not always restricted to small town crimes. Like "Pretty Boy Floyd" and "Jesse James," the songs can detail characters in the news that are more accessible to larger groups. In the case of Charles Whitman, the song assists to make sense of a tragedy with a dose of humor. Kinky Friedman, singer-comedian and former Texas gubernatorial candidate, details the tragedy at the University of Texas when, in 1966, Whitman climbed to the top of the university's administration tower with a sniper rifle and indiscriminately fired on the busy campus below, killing 16 and injuring 32. Friedman alludes to the speculation about a cancerous tumor causing the instability of an otherwise model citizen as well as the aftermath, but his tongue-in-cheek approach to this particular story was met with protest and anger during live performances in Austin.

"Delia's Gone" byJohnny Cash

The black neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia -- Yamacraw -- provides the setting for the murder of Delia Green by Cooney Houston, both fourteen, in 1900. The story made the usual rounds through the South, changing here and there, before Johnny Cash's anachronistic version. Cash, himself a "murder balladeer," takes his sweet time killing Delia, but in the end is haunted by his actions and her ghost.

"Blood on the Bluegrass" by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers

In 1996, Roderick Ferrell and a pack of kids from Kentucky dubbed "The Vampire Clan" drove down to Florida to recruit "the Wendorf girl" into their club and decided to kill her parents. First they clubbed her father with a crowbar -- a clawhammer -- then stabbed her mother to death. He left his mark --the letter V -- in the father's head with a cigarette. Colonel JD Wilkes, one of the South's premier ambassadors, relays this story accompanied by Th' Shack Shaker's own WMD's: hypnotic bass, swampy guitars, haunting banjo and a harmonica straight from Hell.

"I Just Can't Let You Say Goodbye" by Willie Nelson

Another version of the murder ballad as love song, and perhaps the best personification of such. The first-person account of a jilted, yet quite codependent lover is chilling. The icy lyrics counterbalance the soft, velvet pitch of Nelson's voice and the hypnotic beat of his trusty guitar. The killer's narration in this song makes it difficult to sympathize with the victim, despite the horror of the subject matter. This version of the song is made all the better due to the reactions from the crowd at the performance.

"Seven Curses" by Bob Dylan

It is rare in the murder ballad for the voice of the song to belong to the victim, and in Dylan's "Seven Curses," this leads to fogging things up a bit. Old Reilly, a horse thief, is sentenced to hang, and a deal between the judge and Reilly's daughter goes awry, leading to the angry seven curses. The weight of Dylan's brilliant lyricisms are perhaps the only vehicles on the planet with the strength to shoulder the disgust and horror at the true crime in the song, and the fact that the true killers are not the criminals, but the law, make the song even more relevant.

"Jesse James / Framed" by Luego

Brutus, reviled by Dante only to see exoneration and exaltation by Shakespeare centuries later,shares a lot in common with Robert Ford. Ford, known throughout the West as "The Coward," shot Jesse James, a modern-day Robin Hood of Missouri, in the back as he straightened a picture frame. Ford lived the rest of his life facing the disgust of the people until a gunman shot him down, allegedly in retaliation for James. His infamy continued after his death, as Woody Guthrie and others sang "Jesse James," the song that chastises the man who "ate of Jesse's bread and slept in Jesse's bed / then laid poor Jesse in his grave." Decades later, Patrick Phelan of Luego takes a different view. "If the papers get it right," everyone should now realize that Ford acted in self-defense, because if "I didn't do it, he'd a-killed me tonight."

"Polly" by Nirvana

The murder ballad's origins can be traced back to Old World Europe. Just as "Mack the Knife" originated in Germany, many songs immigrated across the Atlantic with scores of cultures and traditions in the late nineteenth century. One of these songs is known as "Pretty Polly," originally known as "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" overseas. Most versions detail a man luring a woman to the woods as she pleads for mercy before he kills her and deposits her into a shallow grave. Nirvana's "Polly" continues this tradition with a first-person, emotionless account that effectively transports the listener to that horrible scene as we hear her pleas go unheard by her sadistic killer.

Afterword by Son House

The American Murder Ballad

"This is How We DoThings in the Country" by Slim Cessna's Auto Club

Seeing as how an entire music collection on murder ballads could revolve around the independent acts that make up the Americana super group Slim Cessna's Auto Club, it is no mystery why this song should launch such a collection.  All of the elements of traditional murder ballads are present: the cold-blooded and senseless murder of another, the aftermath, and the insight into the icy killer's mind.  In the third act of the song, the killer eschews hope of redemption, choosing rather to "straighten out this town with might," altering their tools.  Any exploration into small town murder could be prefaced with the song's haunting refrain because this indeed is how we do things in the country.

"Tom Dooley" by The Kingston Trio

A true story based in Wilkes County, North Carolina.  A man named Tom Dula took his pregnant lover, Ms. Laurie Foster, to a mountain under the guise of taking her away to marry.  Her body was discovered the following day, stabbed several times with a large knife.  Dula was apprehended by Colonel Grayson before he could escape to Tennessee, then returned to face his crimes.  He was tried and found guilty in Statesville, NC, and sentenced to hang.  This version of the song popularized the rich story that still resonates in the area today, where descendants of the players in the song still live.

"John Hardy" by Lead Belly
The real John Hardy killed a man in a craps game and hung on January of 1894.  While there exist some Lomax collection versions which detail the craps game, many of the more accessible ballads reference the murder only with Hardy shooting "down a man on the West Virginia line" and then making tracks.  He's caught on a bridge and brought to jail.  Nearly every version, from Doc Watson to the Carter Family, to the thunderous bass of Lead Belly detail Hardy's troubles in the cell, the people he leaves behind, and their reactions.  The murder ballad often tends to act as a "morality play" for many Appalachian communities, and Hardy's tale is a good example.  In  each version, much is made of his people that he leaves to deal with his actions, and how everyone -- his parents, his wife, his children (where applicable) and his lover, dressed in red -- deals with the shock and sorrow of what he has done and what will inevitably happen to him.  It is no doubt that "John Hardy" was sung to steer children away from making the same mistakes.

"Stackolee" by Mississippi John Hurt
Often the murder ballad can serve as a history lesson, and the story of Stackolee is a great case in point.  In St. Louis in 1895, two men -- Sheldon "Stack" Lee and Billy DeLyons -- talk in a bar and, when the discussion turns to politics, things get out of hand.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch  reports Stack shooting Billy in the chest, taking his Stetson hat, then leaving the bar.  Many facets of the story have changed with each re-telling -- the names, the actions, the motives, the emotions elicited -- but three things remain constant in each version: Stack, Billy, and the Stetson hat.  In Mississippi John Hurt's definitive version, society is telling the tale and bemoans how the policemen "can arrest everybody but cruel Stackolee."

"Stack-O-Lee" bySamuel L. Jackson

 Jackson's first-person telling portrays a crazy, bad motherfucker for the film Black Snake Moan. Stack is unabashed and unflinching, and not only kills Billy Lyons, but also the bartender, for giving him "a dirty look and a dirty glass."  The unrepentant killer is a recurring archetype in the murder ballad, and most all versions of Stack-O-Lee embody this characterization.

"Stack Shot Billy"by The Black Keys

A new variation offers a drug-crazed Stack who "loved his gun and his sweet cocaine," but seeks redemption by song's end, which is unusual in the tale of Sheldon "Stack" Lee.

"Little Sadie" byDoc Watson

"Little Sadie" is most likely a fictitious account of a murder and pursuit of a North Carolina killer.  The two towns in song reference the Carolinas: Thomasville from NC and Jericho from SC.  This song is believed to be the precursor to both Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues" and Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe."    
        

"Cocaine Blues" by Johnny Cash
By the time the first stanza is sung, the murder has been committed by a cocaine-fueled Willy Lee. The remainder of the song details the apprehension, trial, and sentencing of Willy.  There is no trace of regret for killing "that bad bitch" until the final lines, where Willy, facing "99 years in the Folsom pen" sees the error of his ways and pleads with the audience to"lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be."

"Frankie andJohnny" by Big Bill Broonzy

One common interpretation of the murder ballad is a twisted extension of the love song, and "Frankie and Johnny" exemplifies this very well, as the song tells of a woman killing her lover for stepping out on her with another woman named Nellie Bly.  Whether there lies historical truth to this song is the subject of many arguments, with some believing the real crime happened in St.Louis and others placing it in North Carolina.  However many versions, including Broonzy's, place the blame on Johnny, the murder victim, because "he done her wrong."

"Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair" by Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith's haunting tale of a woman who kills "a triflin' Jane" offers a different perspective on the murder ballad.  Rather than seek redemption or mercy from the judge, she begs for the death penalty.  She doesn't want bail, she doesn't want 99 years, she wants to be burned in the chair and sent to Hell for what she's done, and details it all to a catchy beat.

The New Face of "Foodie"

Gwyneth Paltrow may be the new "face of food," but check out the new face of "Foodie"...
During the past week, we have experienced quite a setback, but I am pleased to announce that we are finally back on track.  Last Friday, citing health issues, our director had to leave the project.  Over the past week, thanks to the invaluable help of people like Nick Karner, Rachel Klem of Common Ground Theatre, and Lana Pierce, we were able to keep focused and find a new director to helm this project.
I am pleased to announce that Christopher Moore will be taking over the directorial duties of "Foodie."  Christopher is an award winning film producer who has screened his work at festivals across the country.  In fact, it was just announced this past Friday that his latest work, "Flush With Fear" won the Best Horror Short at the New York City International Film Festival!  Christopher is a hard worker with a lot of experience and an amazing talent for comedy and horror -- the perfect match for this project. 
We are nearing the two week mark left for our Kickstarter campaign.  I admit I let myself get distracted over the past week due to our hiccup, so I'm going to be working extra hard to reach our goal.  I humbly ask you all to please repost our link wherever you can to help us get the word out.  All of you have been a great inspiration to get this done and I, my new crew, and our wonderful cast thank each and every one of you for helping make the "Foodie" possible. 

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Top Ten Songs About People Eating

This list will be very important in those situations where you are trying to work up an appetite, but for whatever reason (nothing but offal, sous vide on the menu, etc.) nothing's happening.  Just pop in your earbuds and ask someone to please, pass the salt.

Top Ten Songs About People Eating

10.  "Rabbit Foot Stomp" by The Two Men Gentlemen Band

One of the dilemmas that civilization has faced since the beginning of time has been what to do with livestock or animals once they have passed their usefulness.  Thankfully, the human diet has evolved to address such an issue.  Old roosters too old to squire are cooked in red wine to produce the French delicacy Coq Au Vin.  An old steer can be slow-roasted over mesquite to make some of the most mouthwatering barbecue.  The Two Men Gentlemen Band, a retro-swing band from the North offer a handy suggestion of how to dispose of a beloved pet after they've been called to Glory.

9.  "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran

The wolf has long been an important symbol in film and literature.  Cassius, his "lean and hungry look" was likened to the wolf in Hamlet.  In fact, all of Roman hisory is hearkened back to the She-Wolf and her offspring.  In fairy tale lore, there is no villain worse than the Big Bad Wolf.  In "Foodie," the dark comedy horror being filmed in Durham, NC, during the summer of 2011, the wolf is embodied in the character of JOHN LANDO, the restaurant chef and frequent guest to Kitchen X, the exclusive underground dinner club.  The action of "Foodie" takes place when Lando brings his most recent invitee to Kitchen X and teaches him firsthand that, when the wolf invites you to dinner, you better know what's on the menu.  Lando is played by David Berberian, a veteran Triangle talent.

8.  "Just Eat It" by Weird Al Yankovic 

Weird Al made quite a career of parodying popular songs in the 1980s, and quite a few of them involved food and eating.  The video to "Just Eat It" is a veritable time machine.

7.  "Ito Eats" by Elvis Presley

It could be argued that Elvis did a lot to repair the image of the Southerner in the age of Civil Rights.  There would be just as many arguements claiming the opposite, doing more damage to the South than William Sherman.  His southern archetype sang and danced his way through scrapes with the mob, boot camp, jail and even Hawaiians.  His performances were on a par with his equivalent in Westerns: John Wayne.  Aug. 16, 1977 was the horrible day we lost our dream to see him play Rhett Butler in a remake of Gone With the Wind. 

6.  "Piggies" by the Beatles

Read in the context of the upcoming film "Foodie," this deep cut from the Beatles' White Album alludes to cannibalism.  Read another way, it could reference gluttony or overconsumption.  In the context of George Harrison's well-publicized personal and spiritual beliefs, it most likely characterizes the piggies as greedy and critiques capitalism.  Read through the context of Charles Manson's Helter-Skelter vision of the apocalypse, it served as instructions to orchestrate the Tate-LaBianca murders, delivered by the first four Horsemen: John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

5.  "Too Much Pork for Just One Fork" by Southern Culture on the Skids

Old-Time and Southern music are laced with code words and thinly-veiled allusions to activities best left implicit due to societal constraints.  African-American music made use of code in work songs in order to deceive slavemasters, overseers and white officials.  Other songs develop clever allusions to sex, druges, or other illicit activities.  One has to wonder however if, due to all the Southern songs dealing with "pork" or "pigmeat," that if it were a code word for "human meat" or "cannibalism," what a different tone this music would make.

4.  "Maneater" by Hall and Oates
Everyone loves a foodie, but what everyone loves even more is the wine-obsessed foodie.  At any great foodie gathering, there's usually something that just knows that much more about juice than anyone else in the room.  Usually, if you're lucky, you'll find two in the same gathering and watch sparks fly.   Two adults coming to blows over Muscadet is something that every person should see at least once.  On of the main characters in "Foodie" is BETH, a woman who truly loves her wine.  Beth, who co-owns a wine store with her husband, can be quite extreme.  She's the kind of woman with whom you would not want to be trapped on a desert island, because she would quickly have you paired with a spicy, aromatic little jammy number from Rioja or perhaps a Beaujolais, when in season.  Beth is played by Tracey Coppedge, an amazing local talent!

3.  "The Whole Damn Thing" by Those Darlins
This quartet from Murfreesboro, Tennessee is what you get when you mix a little Ramones with the Carter Family, or some punk with a hell of a lot of twang.  This hit from their first album presents a problem that thousands of Americans face each morning: what happened to the food that I had in the fridge before I started drinking? 

2.  "I Eat Cannibals" by Tot Coelo
The Euro-synth hits of the 1980s are one of the most overexposed, yet underrated in terms of theme.  Laced throughout the simplistic lyrics and driving pop beats are some of the most complex images and issues.  "Turning Japanese" was a catchy little hit, but it was also allegedly an allusion to masturbation.  Toto Coelo's hit, where they claim their "love is so edible(/Oedipal?), hints at so much more than friendly meat-eating.

1.  "Cannibals In Love" by The Mission Creeps
 This song is easily one of the most poetic songs dealing with hunger or eating in the canon of American music.  Two people are stranded and in order to survive, must feed on one another or die.  James Arr's haunted lyrics ask the important question, "What good's an eye... What good's a leg, when I plan to never leave here?"  The solution to the couple's dilemma, set to Miss Frankie Stein's hypnotic bass, make this song the best song about people eating. 

Rev. Eryk Pruitt works at a popular four-star restaurant in Durham, NC where he swears humans are served, but not served.  He is the screenwriter and co-producer of “Foodie,” a short dark comedy horror film that is being filmed in late summer of 2011.  For more information, visit http://www.foodie-themovie.com/ or project information at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reverenderyk/foodie-a-short-dark-comedy-horror-film

"Foodie" Note -- for the Enthusiast

              It has been said that those who do not study the sins of the past are condemned to repeat them.  In fact, in many instances, there are no solutions to current dilemmas than to look to the past.  Take cannibalism, for example.  Until current puritanical social taboos are rescinded, there is little information widely available regarding such practices.  As subversive as the internet can be, the resources available for cooking and preparing human are a scant few.  Even rotten.com makes no mention of proper consumption of mankind.  Some of the more unfortunate incidents in our nation’s history in which cannibalism was the logical alternative have been curiously devoid of instruction.      

               Take the Donner Party, for example.  How were the members of this ill-fated excursion prepared?  George Donner was from North Carolina, but also lived for a while in Texas, so were they smoked over wood and hot coals like a North Carolinian would have done?  If so, what kinds of wood would have been used?  Hickory?  Mesquite?  What cut did they prefer?  How quickly did the ribs go?  The only mention of cooking techniques found in research was the word “roasted” but this term is generic at best. 

                The Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes survived for two months on the carcasses of their teammates, but little more mention is made of any technique other than they kept the meat packed with snow to preserve it for the long winter ahead.  Again, no discussion of dry rub versus wet marinade, or if any sauces made from local Andean flora enhanced flavor or not. 

                So to fill this void, we are happy to provide the gourmand community with “Foodie,” a short dark comedy horror film that answers all of these questions and more.  Our short film is our gift to the adventurous eater because, after all, there is a little foodie in all of us.

Rev. Eryk Pruitt works at a popular four-star restaurant in Durham, NC where he swears humans are served, but not served.  He is the screenwriter and co-producer of “Foodie,” a short dark comedy horror film that is being filmed in late summer of 2011.  For more information, visit http://www.foodie-themovie.com/ or project information at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reverenderyk/foodie-a-short-dark-comedy-horror-film

Top Ten Movies of People Eating People

                Tired of the same-old, same-old at the grocery store meat counter, I found myself racking my brain to find something new to eat for the summer.  Dinner guests were coming for the weekend and I really wanted to put a little dazzle on the table.  The cookbooks were worn and tired and I hadn't the heart or patience to thumb through the library of old issues of Bon Appétit.  And has anyone tried to find a decent recipe on the internet?  So instead, I picked out a handful of movies and awaited inspiration.

TOP TEN MOVIES OF PEOPLE EATING PEOPLE

10.  WRONG TURN (2003) directed by Rob Schmidt, written by Alan B. McElroy

This gritty guilty pleasure follows a group of young adults stranded in the woods who are trying to elude a trio of inbred, cannibalistic West Virginians.  This film pays little attention to the cannibalism factor, aside from a short scene of terror which involves the protagonists witnessing the bad guys processing two of their friends.  It would have rated higher, but the inbreeds pass out with little regard to the preservation of their quarry, thus leaving their kills to rot.  This is not sustainable cannibalism.

9.  DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978, 2004) directed by George Romero, Zack Snider, written by Romero

It would be entirely too easy to populate this entire list with zombie films, so it was decided to have one represent them all and it would be criminal not to include a Romero work.  Horrorphiles may bemoan a movie from the Master ranking so low on the list, but the eating habits of the zombie would make even the most dedicated foodie’s stomach ache.  The undead fall upon their prey with little regard for taste or preparation.  However the zombie, unlike most Americans, does not eschew the offal, often actually preferring intestines, organs, and less popular cuts.

8.  TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) dir. by Tobe Hooper, written by Hooper and Kim Henkel

So revolutionary when it first premiered in the US, but obviously influenced by the Italian's cannibal in film movement.  Massacre inspired a wave of imitators nearly 40 years after its production.  While Hooper paid homage to all the greats with his work -- such as Hitchcock’s Psycho among others -- he unintentionally fathered the coming wave of slasher films, with Leatherface giving rise to Jason, Freddy, and many others.  While the sequel in 1986 ratcheted up the cannibalism, it also amped up the camp where the original kept the horror in the forefront where it belongs.

7.  DOOMSDAY (2008) directed and written by Neil Marshall

Another great output from Neil Marshall turns the zombie movie no its head.  The undead serves as a backdrop in this story, but they are hardly the real threat.  Two warring factions in post-zombie apocalypse England compete for supremacy of the quarantined island and one, led by Sol (Craig Conway), realizes that to retain the loyalty of his followers, you gotta feed them.  Their style of cooking over open flame will appeal to many backyard chefs, but true barbecue purists will bemoan their use of high heat to cook their meat, rather than going "slow and low."

6.  THE ROAD (2009) dir. by John Hillcoat, written by Cormac McCarthy and Joe Penhall

There are many things to fear in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's stark and desolate novel: the ash in the air from the fallout of what caused the post-Apocalyptic landscape, the lack of food and water, bandits... but the immediate threat are the murderous bands of scavengers who travel the roads looking for survivors for their own sustenance.  In one scene, the two main characters stumble upon a farmhouse with a basement full of emaciated captives and realize they are being kept alive for food.  No mention is made of cooking techniques, but this method of storing leaves their prey rather lean and free of fat due to extended periods of starvation.  One can hardly imagine them hardly sufficient to do more than flavor stews and stocks.

5.  28 DAYS LATER (2002) dir. by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland

The debate over whether to include 28 Days Later in the zombie pantheon is endless, but the fiends in this film are commonly regarded as "infected" rather than "undead."  Regardless, their rage leads them to attack the non-infected and feast on their flesh and entrails just as their undead counterparts in Romero films may have done.  An interesting aspect is revealed when the infected loses their energy and stamina after the lack of food, due to the decimation of the living population.

4.  ALIVE (1993) dir. by Frank Marshall, written by Piers Paul Read and John Patrick Shanley

Not many films explore the psychology of cannibalism quite like Alive, probably due to the factual basis of the film.  When a plane carrying soccer players crashes in the Andes, the brutal reality of their situation forces them to consider eating the dead in order to survive.  Some refuse, some accept, but their decisions have consequences either way.  Due to the freezing climes and incredible foresight in the face of death, the survivors manage to preserve their meat by packing the carcasses with snow, thus insuring dinner for future nights.

3.  RAVENOUS (1999) directed by Antonia Bird, written by Ted Griffin

Steeped in historical fiction, this tense little thriller exposes not only a belief in the "Wendigo," a ravenous, cannibalistic creature that consumes the strengths and experiences of its victims when it feasts on its flesh, but also some clever cooking techniques as well.  However, along with these increased abilities, comes an insatiable addiction for the forbidden.  Next to Alive, Ravenous contains some of the most pro-cannibalism arguments made possible in film.  One is left to wonder exactly what wine would pair best with the spirit of a consumed victim, rather than just certain cuts.

2.  SOYLENT GREEN (1973) dir. by Richard Fleischer, written by Stanley Greenburg and Harry Harrison

One of the all-time classics in genre and featuring one of the greatest lead actors of the period, Soylent Green is part sci-fi adaptation and part police procedural.  Charlton Heston stars as Detective Thorn who serves as a cop on an overpopulated planet where the people depend on Soylent Green, a food product served by a government corporation.  Many connoisseurs who have tried to assemble a top-notch party mix salivate at the thought of adding the flavor-packed wafers of Soylent Green to some Marcona almonds, parmesan Goldfish crackers, pretzels and Chex mix for the perfect, anytime-anywhere snack.

1.  SILENCE OF THE LAMBS  (1991) dir. by Jonathan Demme, written by Ted Tally and Thomas Harris

This film has it all: one of the most compelling crime stories ever filmed, suspense and understated horror, one of the greatest screen villains of all time, and a wonderful suggestion for preparing and pairing wine with human offal.  Thomas Harris, the novelist and amateur gourmand, threatened to have his name removed from the project because he originally wrote the dish to be served with Amarone, reasoning that only a fool would pair liver with Chianti.  Cooler heads prevailed and we've been treated to seconds with sequels, prequels, and reboots featuring Hannibal Lecter and his penchant for gourmet cannibalism.

Rev. Eryk Pruitt runs a popular four-star restaurant in Durham, NC where he swears humans are served, but not served.  He is the writer and co-producer of a short horror film named "Foodie" that won Best Horror at film festivals in Charlotte, Tucson, and Mt. Hood, Oregon.  Find out more at http://www.foodie-themovie.com/   Purchase the DVD at http://www.foodie-themovie.com/buythedvd.html