Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with a crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead …

Apr 23, 2025 · This list rounds up ten standout murder ballads that might have slipped under your radar—not because they’re obscure, but because their melodies are so mesmerizing that their …

Oct 17, 2023 · From Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to The Cranberries and Lefty Frizzell, here are ten of the greatest murder ballads in music history.

Jan 30, 2021 · Murder ballads are “ the oldest form of crime literature,” as the true crime writer Harold Schechter wrote in The Yale Review. They’re the first place Americans sought cheap …

Jul 21, 2021 · Murder ballads have collectively come from Black and white cultures to paint pictures of small segments of society, to memorialize important events, and to pass along the …

Sep 19, 2023 · Murder ballads are folksongs that tell the story of a violent crime, usually the murder of a young woman, most often by a lover.

Jan 13, 2014 · The Kingston Trio’s 1957 recording of “The Ballad of Tom Dooley,” an unadorned, true tale of killing and retribution in the post–Civil War South, reintroduced Americans to the …

In this unique, illustrated collection, Literary Witches co-creator Katy Horan unearths the true and fictional stories behind twenty traditional murder ballads, exploring the beauty and horror of the …

Feb 9, 2021 · Perhaps more than any other sub-genre, murder ballads are a definitive component of traditional Appalachian music. “Down in the Willow Garden,” “The Banks of the Ohio,” and …

Sep 6, 2023 · In essence, murder ballads aimed to disseminate information about sensational real-life murders or homicides to the segments of society that lacked literacy. The format often …