DETAILS
Broken City
Thursday, July 31 - Thursday, July 31
More in: Rock / Pop
Find It...
For musicians, the great thing about doing a show at a murder ballad-themed night is that there’s so much material to choose from. It’s not like doing, say, a Beatles night, where you are limited to a meagre 10-year catalogue. From old field songs to Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” through Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” and on, there are countless timeless songs to choose from.
If none of these suit you, you can always write your own. As Leslie Merk Overland, who performs as Lucid 44, says, “My songs are sad — one-third murder ballads, one-third lovesickness ballads, one-third all around alienation ballads.” It was only natural, then, for Overland to combine his CD release with a night of murder ballads. The event is part of the ongoing RAMP series of themed concerts at Broken City, which Overland has taken part in twice before.
The songwriter remembers “Strange Fruit,” the story of a lynching in the American south, as the first murder ballad he heard, around the time he was 12 years old. “I think I got [it] because I was reading books about black history at the time [and was] moved deeply,” he says. While murder ballads can be written from the point of view of the murderer, victim or bystander, each providing a different insight, Overland’s preference is to write from the view of the victim. “I think these songs… create empathy and understanding, shedding light on issues that would not get told,” he says.
Aaron Meyer of Honeybear, another artist taking part in the RAMP show, feels that all perspectives are equally interesting. “Murder is an intense experience across the board,” he says. “From any perspective, there’s something to say. To hear what goes on in a killer’s head is kind of hard to imagine, so there’s a lot of intrigue there, and it’s so easy to imagine being a victim that it really grabs you from that end.”
Meyer was excited to be asked to play the theme night. He remembers Leadbelly’s “In the Pines” as the first gruesome song that got his attention. “I’m really drawn to murder ballads,” he explains. “You have the more obvious ballads that are very exciting and outwardly projected, like Johnny Cash’s ‘Cocaine Blues,’ and there are those that are more of an inward monologue — really beautifully dark, plush with malice but without a hint of rage. I find those the most unnerving and affecting.”
Meyer had a couple of murder ballads written, and chose to add to his repertoire for his set. “I decided to write or rewrite songs for a whole new set for this show,” he says. “I’ve got about seven ready so far. I reworked ‘Blood-Red and Going Down,’ I’m pretty excited for that one. It was made popular by Tanya Tucker in the early ‘70s. That version is offensively terrible, but the song at its root is great.”
Both songwriters agree that death is something to embrace and discuss, not shush away into the funeral parlour. As Overland says, “I discuss [it] to let the grieving process unfold. I had to learn the hard way — I watch the kettle so it doesn’t boil over and scald the people around me.”
“I was raised without any taboo about death,” Meyers reflects. “My grandpa is one of the most important influences on my life, and he died when I was still pretty young. He was undoubtedly a patriarch, and losing him was indescribably traumatic, but my family is full of amazingly strong and supportive people. We were always open about it and still are. I could tell you exactly what everyone in my family wants done with their bodies when they’re dead. It’s the same give and take as with anything else — you can only live if you are prepared to die. The two are entirely symbiotic.”
