obvious use of folk music to discuss tragedy..coal mines, shipwrecks, murder etc. all morning the banks of ohio has been going through my head..sung by Olivia Newton John..I don't know if it helps us cope, or understand or what. I do believe that commemorating people in ship disasters is an old tradition..likewise mining. I don't think we tend to write songs about car accidents, etc., although there was a run of them in the late 60s..but it is certainly one way to commemorate people..and when people discuss the uses of folk music..political, ecological etc.they rarely bring this up. But every person's story has a song lurking in it somewhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilfP2fVLhU