Many of the good folk here on Mudcat have enjoyed PlanetSlade.com's Murder Ballads essays in the past. (Previously: 1 , 2 , 3 .)

Now Soundcheck Books is publishing a collection of them, and I've posted a load of free teaser material for it on PlanetSlade. There you'll find some out-takes from my new interviews with Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds' Mick Harvey, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family, Snakefarm's Anna Domino, Dave Alvin from The Blasters, Laura Cantrell, The Mekons' Jon Langford, Bob Shane from The Kingston Trio, Angela Correa and Ralph Stanley II.

I've also included a couple of sidebar stories which got squeezed out of the book for reasons of space, including an introduction to the OTHER Charlie Lawson (who also murdered a member of his own family at Christmas time) and an account of my long-delayed trip to Tom Dula and Laura Foster's graves. Finally, you'll find some links to my own curated playlists for the book's eight songs. Please enjoy all the free content, spread the word that my book exists and - dare I hope? - maybe even consider buying a copy yourself.