For all of you who have expressed interest, I'm an anthropology major at Columbia University. I'm interested in this specific topic for several reasons. First, I'm from Southwest Virginia, my dad is from Norton, and his family is from Kentucky. I went to many a folk show when I was growing up. So I've always been somewhat close to folk song tradition, though never directly involved in it. I play a viola made by Arthur Conner of Copper Hill, VA, and somehow, it seems to want to play fiddle music rather than the Brahms that I used to try to put it though.... :) At any rate, my investigation here is part of a class called Text, Magic, and Performance, taught by a professor who, coincidentally enough, is also from SW VA. We have talked about the strange voicings in the lyrics of "Oh Death", which lots of my cosmopolitan class was familiar w/ due to the infamous KKK scene in "Oh Brother". And when I started listening to some of my favorite folk songs about death again, I realized that there were some pretty strange things going on it the lyrics -- possession by death itself, visions, directives to the living that allow the dead to "speak" through the singer. But all of these things are meaningless if they can't be placed in the context of performance. So I'm interested in the way singers themselves perceive the process of performance, and the overwhelming response I'm getting here is that these songs of death are seen as another inevitable part of singing about life. These songs seem to help the living conceptualize and understand their own deaths, usually w/o pageantry or fluff. Nevertheless, certain songs do seem to be described as especially haunting or troublesome. (Didn't we all get chills when Stanley sung "Oh Death"? Doesn't that happen rather often?) I wonder what it is about certain songs that does this. The lyrics? The tune? The performer? All three? Anyway, I want to THANK ALL OF YOU SO MUCH for your incredible insight and enthusiasm!!! You've really helped me think through this problem. I am, of course, not finished yet, and I'll listen to any further discussion w/ rapt attention! I'll be sure to let you all know when the (admittedly inadequate) paper is ready, and I could send it to you as an attachment over email if you like. Back to writing! Graciously, Leigh