A highlight of last year's Murder Ballad Ball was Tony Ladesich's performance.
To quote myself: "Ladesich and his guitar played beautiful tunes, all originals in fact, except for the Bruce Springsteen cover he closed with. Looking at Ladesich, you'd never think he had such a resplendent voice. 'Dollar General' and 'Bellefontaine' were simple, formulaic songs about murder and vice in the Northeast neighborhood. After three and a half hours of murder music, Ladesich gave a delightful pick-me-up."
This year, I asked him about his creative process when constructing beautiful songs about ugly subjects.
Find a schedule of the night's performances after the jump.
"I found out last year as I was preparing for the Murder Ballad Ball that I write a great deal of murder ballads already. I'm not 100% sure why, but they just flow out of me. Maybe it's because I have some pent-up frustrations or the ability to see the logical (or illogical) conclusion of love gone wrong... or anything gone wrong.
"I have been fascinated by the idea of the murder ballad for a long time. I think it began when Eminem came out with that song about killing his wife and everyone on the press freaked out. I found it to be hypocritical, to say the least. People only start freaking out when it's in a rap song.
"Do these same people not see that murder ballads have been in musical culture for centuries? Country and old-time music is filled with stories of love gone horribly wrong: Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, etc.
"One of the songs I'm playing is called 'North Fork.' It was inspired by a guitar that I bought from an old man. He told me that the guitar was bought new in the 1930's by his wife's uncle. As I'm told, the old man was a ferry boat captain in Pennsylvania who lived a life filled with sorrow. He took his own life and his family placed the guitar safely in its case, for years and years. The next time they took it out was to sell it. And I happened upon it and claimed it for my own. This instrument is haunted, filled with songs. One of them is 'North Fork.'
"It is a heartbreaking tale about a man whose wife dies in childbirth. Every time he looks at his baby daughter, he can't feel anything but the heartbreak of his lost love. So, as he is riding the ferry boat across the river with his child, he simply places her in the water and allows her to sink to the bottom. Like the current sweeping her into the Divine. The rest of the song is about the man riding the ferryboat back and forth across the river. He is filled with the deepest regret and cries out to the ferryboat captain, begging him to "take him back to his love." He prays that by some magic, his wife and daughter might one day be waiting on the shore for him when he arrives.
"I did not set out to write a murder ballad with this one, but it's what came to me. This song is quite beautiful in melody, juxtaposing the darkness of the lyric.
"I will be doing all my own songs that night, with the exception of 'Lilly Shull,' a song I learned from an old Uncle Tupelo record.
Ladesich performs at 9:25 p.m. on the Crosstown Station stage (1522 McGee, 816-472-1522).
The evening is set to run by this schedule:
5 p.m. - Doors Open
6:10 p.m. - Introductions and the story of Pretty Polly
6:25 p.m. - Rural Grit All Stars
6:55 p.m. - Brian Frame, Amy Farrand, Terrance Moore
7:55 p.m. - Tin Horn Molly
8:25 p.m. - First intermission and raffle
8:45 p.m. - Tiny Horse, the Columns, Howard Iceberg
9:25 p.m. - Tony Ladesich
10:05 p.m. - Hot Dog Skeletons, Radio City
10:45 p.m. - The Silver Maggies, the Delighted, the MurderHers
11:20 p.m. - Second raffle
11:30 p.m. - Alacartoona
12:05 a.m. - Cadillac Flambe
12:05 a.m. - End of silent auction
12:40 a.m. - The Calamity Cubes
1:15 a.m. - Them Damned Young Livers
1:45 a.m. - Final raffle and announcement of auction winners
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Love murder ballads! You should check out this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
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