In search of murder ballads and mournful cello

I’m reasonably cheerful in real life ("real" being a relative term) and hardly morbid at all. But life isn't literature, and my favorite songs are narrative, ranging from alternative bluegrass to Latin to medieval classical with--much to the chagrin of my household--tragic leanings. The songs I Iove best are raw, underproduced updates on traditional ballads rife with daggers and drowned lovers.

Often someone dies in them or has died or will die.

This is precisely the opposite of what I or anyone want/s in real life, but in literature and music, I crave it. The emotional arc in these songs just feels true and invites, for me, that satisfying state the ancient Greeks called catharsis. Call it what you like, but if you're one of those people who think of slow songs as "depressing," tune out now. If you sit up for murder ballads and mournful cello, you're in the right place.

If you've made it this far, we probably share a musical proclivity or two. So I hope you'll report your finds (you've guessed how selfish this endeavor is: reaping that I might sow).

Haunted Playlist #1: HAUNTINGS

An' Another Thing--Dave Matthews
When My Love and I Parted-- Solas
Leave Your Light On-- Tim Erikson
Ghost--Jorane
Muddy Hymnal--Iron and Wine
Long Black Veil--Edith Frost
1939--Hayden
I Am Stretched on Your Grave--Kate Rusby
The Wind and the Rain--Crooked Still
The Red Violin--Joshua Bell
You Will Be My Ain True Love--Alison Krauss
Strange Fruit--Nina Simone
Corpus Christi Carol--Jeff Buckley
Lady Margret--Cassie Franklin
Lowlands Away--Rufus Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle
Witches--Cowboy Junkies
She Moves Through the Fair--Anne Briggs
Russian Lullaby--Libana
De Cara a la Pared--Lhasa
I Wish My Baby Was Born--Tim Eriksen, Riley Baugus & Tim O'Brien
The Yearning of the Sword--Yo-Yo Ma
Unquiet Grave--Kate Rusby
My Good Gal--Old Crow Medicine Show
Wuthering Heights--Kate Bush

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Haunted Playlist #2: ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, ELEMENTAL


Wild Is the Wind--Cat Power
All the Pretty Horses--Calexico
Green Grass--Cibelle
Volcano--Damien Rice
The Coo Coo Bird--Be Good Tanyas
Yulunga (Spirit Dance)--Dead Can Dance
I Can't Stand the Rain--Cassandra Wilson
Fatal Flower Garden--Andrew Bird
Stubborn Beast--Jolie Holland
Cinder and Smoke--Iron and Wine
Scarborough Fayre--Mediaeval Baebes
Song of the Black Lizard--Pink Martini
Magpie--Patrick Wolf and Marianne Faithful
Silver Stallion--Cat Power
Fuel for Fire--M Ward
The Crane Wife 3--Decemberists
A Rose in April--Kate Rusby
Falling--Peter Mulvey
Sweet Little Duck--Kathleen Edwards
Bloodflow--Calexico
She's Like the Sparrow--Karan Casey
You Look Like Rain--Morphine
I Envy the Wind--Lucinda Williams
Someday the Waves--Iron and Wine
How Death Comes--Mediaeval Baebes

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"Enjoy" might not be the right word. but here you have it; and I'll post new lists when the spirit moves me.