Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die

Subject: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 04 Jan 16 - 05:18 PM

Unprepared to Die - America's Greatest Murder Ballads by Paul Slade

Great songs produce great performances. This book is riveting. The stories are amazing. Even more so is the historical discography of artists who recorded a version of the song; it reads like a "who's who" melding field recordings of folk artists and modern rock.

This is a solid, academic work. But, it reads like a best seller from the New York Times list.

If you have the Lomax brothers, Randolph, Cohen, and Lighter on your bookshelf....Slade should snuggle up close.

You will discover the wonderful transitions of the "folk process" as lyrics morph and change. There is an element of historical genius as Slade brings an entire catalogue of recorded music together.




Sincerely,
Gargoyle

This is a great book. I recommend it most highly to Dick, Susan, Max and Joe ... and anyone else that appreciates the MC founder's genre.

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 08:16 AM

Thanks, Gargoyle - I'm really glad you enjoyed the book.

There's a selection of its other reviews so far here .

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 01:59 AM

Thanks for the tip, garg. I would expect anything coming from Paul Slade to be first-class work. The man knows his murder ballads, no doubt about it.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 03:39 AM

This Thursday (Jan 28) at 8pm GMT, London's Resonance FM will be broadcasting an hour-long documentary on murder ballads I've put together for the station. You'll be able to listen to it live online here.

Using clips from my book's interview recordings with musicians like Billy Bragg, Laura Cantrell and Dave Alvin, the programme discusses five classic murder ballads: Stagger Lee, Hattie Carroll, Knoxville Girl, Tom Dooley and Murder of the Lawson Family.

We'll also play some of my favourite recordings of those songs, including tracks from The Handsome Family, Steve Earle, The Louvin Brothers and Bob Dylan. More details on this PlanetSlade page.

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 05:08 AM

The Resonance FM show I mentioned want out last night, and is now archived for your listening pleasure on this Mixcloud page.

Thanks very much to Gargoyle and Joe for their kind words about the book above. Thanks also to Mudcatter Sandra in Sydney for letting the Australian folk music DJ Bruce Cameron know about the radio programme. Bruce and I have swapped a few e-mails which I hope will result in the documentary getting an additional airing on his New South Wales show.

Anyone else involved with community radio, local radio or podcasting who'd like to rebroadcast the show too, please contact me via www.PlanetSlade.com. I'm very open to this idea, but we'd need to talk through each individual case first.

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 06:07 AM

Thanks for the heads-up, Garg. And also to Paul for all the interesting input. I'll definitely check it out. (Have marked it as "Want to read" on Goodreads, where I see it's garnered a 5 star rating and a 4 star one. Not bad for two out of two.)

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 07:06 AM

Wow, just noticed... Paul is also the dude who wrote The Outcast Dead: Cross Bones Graveyard, which tells the story of a medieval cemetery in south London - a dumping ground for those whom society and religion deemed unfit for burial in consecrated ground: whores, paupers, criminals; all fodder for the gangs of resurrection men.

Paul, do you have a Facebook page for Planet Slade? Couldn't find one, but there are a million "Paul Slades" on there.

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 31 Jan 16 - 02:20 PM

No Facebook page for PlanetSlade, I'm afraid, Bonnie. The book itself has got one though: https://www.facebook.com/Unprepared-To-Die-1066823116684104/.

Speaking of Facebook, Laura Cantrell was kind enough to mention Killer Songs of her FB page this morning. "Cool show with some great guest artists," she says.

Subject: RE: Review: BOOK - Unprepared To Die
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 19 Feb 16 - 03:56 AM

There's more radio fun over on New Hampshire's WUNH, where DJ Jack Beard built a two-hour Folk Show round the songs discussed in my book. You can hear the full show archived online here: Part 1 ; Part 2 .