Description

The Homicide Squad is a special segment of Ipse Dixit devoted to murder ballads, those delightfully grisly folk songs that tell stories about the ultimate sin.

Most murder ballads are based on true stories, more or less. And many of those true stories took place in Appalachia.

Each episode of the Homicide Squad will focus on a different murder ballad. I will explain the true story behind the song, when it has survived. And I will explore how the song has evolved over time, sharing several different versions to illustrate different interpretations.

The subject of this first episode is one of my very favorite murder ballads, The Banks of the Ohio.

Tracks:

1. Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, Down on the Banks of the Ohio (1927).
2. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Banks of the Ohio (1953).
3. Blue Sky Boys, Down on the Banks of the Ohio (1936).
4. Irene and Ellen Kossoy, The Banks of the Ohio (1956).
5. Joan Baez, Banks of the Ohio (1961).
6. Clarence Ashley (with Fred Price on fiddle, Clint Howard, and Doc Watson), Banks of the Ohio (1961).
7. Kristen Hersh, Banks of the Ohio (1998).
8. Dolly Parton, Banks of the Ohio (2014).
9. Vandaveer, Banks of the Ohio (2013).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.