Folk Bloodbath - A song from the new Josh Ritter's album 'So Runs The World Away'



FOLK BLOODBATH
(Josh Ritter version of "Louis Collins," "Delia," and ""Stackalee.")

Louis Collins took a trip out west
When he returned, little Delia had gone to rest
The angels laid her away

Louis said to Delia 'That's the sad thing with life:
There's people always leavin' just as other folks arrive.'
The angels laid her away

When the people heard Delia was dead
All of them gentlemen they dressed in red
The angels laid her away

Angels laid her away
Laid her six feet under the clay
The angels laid her away

Louis went downtown for a new suit of clothes
He's gonna dress up for Delia like a fine red rose
The angels laid him away

He brought a ten-gallon Stetson
It was ox blood red
Stackalee shot Louis in the back of the head
The angels laid him away

Oh Stackalee said to Louis,
'Oh now don't you grieve.
I'm sending you to Delia, you won't ever have to leave.'
The angels laid him away

Angels laid him away
They laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away

Well the judge was a mean one
His name was Hangin' Billy Lyons
He said 'You've always been a bad man, Stack,
You gonna hang this time.
The angels lay you away.'

And the jailer said to Stackalee
'What's the problem with you?'
'Oh jailer, Louis Collins' ghost brought Delia's with him, too.'
The angels laid them away

Angels laid him away
They laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away

Well they buried little Delia
In the church yard deep
With Louis Collins at her head
Stackalee at her feet
The angels laid them away

And out of Delia's bed came briars
Out of Louis's bed a rose
Out of Stackalee's came Stackalee's cold lonely little ghost
Angels laid them away

And I'm looking over rooftops
And I'm hoping that it ain't true
That the same God looks out for them
Looks out for me and you
Angels laid them away
Angels laid them away
Angels laid them away


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6s0ejQElUg

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Here's an excerpt from the review of the album by The Atlantic:

Ritter delves further into the Great American Song Book with the tune "Folk Bloodbath." The track borrows its refrain from a Mississippi John Hurt song and combines the stories of three ill-fated characters from American musical history: Louis Collins, Delia, and Stackalee. Each of these unfortunates was originally killed in a separate traditional folk song. Louis Collins, a character who previously appeared in a Hurt song, dies in a duel. Delia, from Blind Willie McTell's eponymous song, is shot by her beau. The character, Stackalee, first appeared in a popular blues song about the murderous pimp, Stagger Lee Shelton. The real "Stackalee" died in prison but his fictional alter ego is hung for his crime.
In order to discuss all three characters, Ritter shortens their back-stories and eliminates emotional touches, such as the descriptions of weeping mothers or of the victims begging for their lives. In "Folk Bloodbath", we never find out what happened to poor Delia, who has simply "gone to rest" before the song commences. In Blind Willie McTell's version, she screams "Jesus Christ" before getting shot by a .44. While gruesome, such details gave the old tracks their bite. Ritter's tale feels sanitized by comparison.