MARTIN CARTHY AND DAVE SWARBRICK, "LUCY WAN" incest, sister-cide, and the old it-never-works lie about that blood on your sleeve

MARTIN CARTHY BY HISSELF, "BILL NORRIE" secret illegitimate child, jealousy, beheading

KRISTIN HERSH, "POOR ELLEN SMITH" alas, I must hang, cos I shot my love

THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY, "THE WIND AND THE RAIN" sister-cide, construction of fiddle out of hapless victim's bones

ROSCOE HOLCOMB, "OMIE WISE" true story

WOODY GUTHRIE, "BUFFALO SKINNERS" drover hired us cowboys to hunt buffalo, then he went bankrupt and couldn't pay us, but we never heard of no bankrupt law, so we kilt him

JOHN JACKSON, "FRANKIE AND JOHNNY" she shot her man, cos he done her wrong

BURNETT & RUTHERFORD, "PEARL BRYAN" 2 dentistry students kill the pregnant lover of a friend in the course of a botched abortion and remove her head to prevent identification, but she has webbed toes so they get caught and hung anyway - true story!

WAYNE ERBSEN, "TOM DULA" he killed poor Laura Foster, you know he's bound to die

DAVID MILLER, "THAT BAD MAN STACKOLEE" Stackolee shot Billy Lyons through and through, all over his Stetson hat

BILL MONROE AND DOC WATSON, "BANKS OF THE OHIO" alas, I must hang, I drowned my love

LOUVIN BROTHERS, "KNOXVILLE GIRL" alas, I must hang, I beat my love to death

BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES FAMILY TRAVELING MEDICINE SHOW, "FATAL FLOWER GARDEN" sweet-seeming lady lures hapless schoolboy to his death

AMPS FOR CHRIST, "EDWARD" relative of "Lucy Wan" only this time it's fratricide

RUBE WADDELL, "JOE HILL" half murder ballad, half rabble-rousin song - Joe Hill was framed for a murder because he was a labor leader, and even then-pres. Woodrow Wilson believed Joe was innocent but he still hanged

BILLY CHILDISH AND THE BLACKHANDS, "JOHN HARDY" words unintelligible but I have it on good authority - Leadbelly, that John Hardy kills a man over 25c in a card game and gets himself hanged - true story, apparently

TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD, "STACK-O-LEE" rockabilly version that makes it sound kinda funny - Stack-O-Lee goes to hell after he's hanged and takes over from the devil, he's so bad

BYRD MOORE, "FRANKIE SILVERS" shot her husband, wrote this about it in jail, took the poem and a piece of cake to the scaffold, et the cake and said the poem and was hanged

COUNTRY GENTLEMEN, "THE LONG BLACK VEIL" alas, I must hang, I didn't kill anybody but I did sleep with my best friend's wife

UNCLE TUPELO, "LILI SCHULL" alas, I must hang, I killed my love in an unspecified manner

FAIRPORT CONVENTION, "MATTY GROVES" Lady Donal sleeps with our Matty, Lord Donal kills them both eventually, after the priceless line "never let it be said in all England I slew a naked man"

SHIRLEY COLLINS AND THE ALBION COUNTRY BAND, "THE MURDER OF MARIA MARTEN" alas, I must hang, I killed my love in a way I forget -

GARMARNA, "BRUN" boy abducts girl, boy goes to sleep, girl ties up boy with her long hair, girl wakes boy and then kills him

TWO DOLLAR GUITAR, "WOMAN KILLING MAN" boy attempts to shoot girl, girl calls him weak for using a gun, stabs him with scissors and leaves him to die