A first post. Next month I'll be playing a "solo" show at The Underbelly in Hoxton for Folk and Dagger. Piano accompaniment will come from Sam Tannenbaum and probably other members of The Devils will join us. As 'Mr and Mrs Samuel Kidd' we'll be playing some brand new songs and new arrangements of things you might have heard before.
The new songs take up the Robinson myth via Celine, Weldon Kees, Chris Petit and Patrick Keilor. I'll be posting about Robinson more in the coming months as the collection develops.
The Decline of the English Murder Ballad Pt 1 Demo by The Devil May Cares
I recorded this demo with Nick from The Devils on a cassette four-track in his bedroom a few weeks ago. 'The Decline of the English Murder Ballad' finds Robinson and I committing an increasingly debauched series of murders in search of better subject matter for songwriting. But as the murders become more depraved, we find that both they and the songs slip into self-referential vulgarity.
the american whose throat we slit that time in bergen
ReplyDeletewas visiting norway to see the stave churches
fifteen stood once, only fourteen stand now
some musician called “the count” burnt one of them down
fresh off the cargo deck, no room at the inn,
bloody we slept in the hotel gymnasium
and, though we emptied his pockets, I can say for certain,
with that one that both robinson and I began to love murder
for murdering sake, now I drink just to sing about
drinking myself into this sorry state
there is honour amongst thieves, there are old codes of piracy,
but since then it’s been just a month’s lawless killing spree
now my songs all go on too long, lists of wrongdoing...
is this the decline of english murder balladry?