People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938 (2007)

About this title: This three-disc, 70-track (30 of them new to the CD era) collection of murder ballads and disaster songs originally released on commercial 78s between 1913 and 1938 is, in spite of the archaic song structures and often crude sonic qualities on display, strangely contemporary in tone and feel, maybe because we've always been drawn to the scene of the accident, and even in this 21st century world of the Internet and all-day, all-night news channels, that's still as true as it ever was. We just don't write songs about such things so much anymore, and since one can just flip on the TV to get up ... read more

Tracks:

1. Titanic Blues
2. Wreck of the Old '97
3. Bill Wilson
4. The Crash of the Akron [Sims]
5. The Fate of Talmadge Osborne
6. El Mole Rachmim (Für Titanik)
7. The Wreck of the Virginian
8. Fate of Will Rogers & Wiley Post [Cox]
9. Down with the Old Canoe
10. Wreck of Number 52 [Carlisle]
11. Kassie Jones, Pt. 1
12. Kassie Jones, Pt. 2
13. The Brave Engineer
14. The Sinking of the Titanic
15. Fate of Chris Lively and Wife [Reed]
16. Wreck on the Mountain Road
17. The Unfortunate Brakeman [Jenks]
18. Altoona Freight Wreck [Robison/Tait-Dougla]
19. The Fatal Wreck of the Bus
20. Last Scene of the Titanic [Hutchison. Frank]
21. Casey Jones
22. The Wreck of the Westbound Airliner [Reed]
23. The Titanic
24. When That Great Ship Went Down
25. The Story of the Mighty Mississippi [Harrell]
26. Mississippi Heavy Water Blues
27. Dixie Boll Weevil [Carson]
28. Mississippi Boweavil [Mahoney/Miller]
29. Ohio Prison Fire
30. Memphis Flu
31. Explosion in the Fairmount Mine [Reed]
32. Storm That Struck Miami [Carson]
33. When the Levee Breaks
34. Alabama Flood [Jenkins]
35. Burning of the Cleveland School
36. High Water Everywhere, Pt. 1
37. High Water Everywhere, Pt. 2
38. Ryecove Cyclone
39. McBeth Mine Explosion [Caplinger/Patterson]
40. Dry Well Blues
41. Baltimore Fire
42. Tennessee Tornado
43. Dry Spell Blues, Pt. 2
44. The Santa Barbara Earthquake [Robison]
45. The Death of Floyd Collins [Jenkins]
46. The Porto Rico Storm [Robison]
47. Boll Weavil
48. The Flood of 1927
49. Peddler and His Wife
50. The Little Grave in Georgia
51. Kenny Wagner's Surrender [Jenkins]
52. Henry Clay Beattie
53. The Murder of the Lawson Family [Smith]
54. Naomi Wise
55. Railroad Bill
56. Frankie
57. Trial of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, Pt. 1
58. Trial of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, Pt. 2
59. Lanse des Belaires
60. Darling Cora
61. Billy Lyons and Stack O' Lee
62. Tom Dooley
63. The Story of Freda Bolt [Shanks]
64. Pretty Polly
65. Fingerprints Upon the Windowpane
66. The Bluefield Murder
67. Frankie Silvers
68. Fate of Rhoda Sweeten
69. Dupree Blues
70. Poor Ellen Smith

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.