This weeks show is one I will never forget, Rennie Sparks, lyricist of legendary band The Handsome Family spends a little while sharing some of her favourite records with us, whilst getting to the root of why we all love murder ballads so very much.
“To enjoy a murder ballad you have to be willing to see it as art and not newspaper reporting. These songs are about life and lust not about death and dust. They make your heart beat fast and your skin flush. They are, perhaps, the remnants of ancient pre-Christian blood/sex rituals and are designed to make you want to roll in fields of blooming heather, not to become the next Ted Bundy. Here are some of The Handsome Family’s favourite examples of this centuries-old form of nature-worship” – Rennie Sparks, The Handsome Family
“Words that in their everyday surrealism have no parallel in contemporary writing.. Music that mines the deep veins of fatalism in the Appalachian voice” – Greil Marcus
Free Track
To Celebrate the Show Folk Radio UK have a Free Track from The Handsome Family’s new album ‘Wilderness’ to give-away courtesy of the fine folk at Loose Music:
Video: Woodpecker (directed by Chris Hefner)
Broadcast Schedule – UK Time Zone
Sunday 12th May 2013 @ 5pm – on Folk Radio UK
Then repeated on the following:
Monday: @ 2am
Wednesday: @ 9pm
Friday: @ 1pm
http://loosemusic.com/
http://www.handsomefamily.com/
http://www.simplefolkradio.com/