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With that in mind, Louvin’s current label, Tompkins Square Records, is a fitting home for him; late last year it released a phenomenal three-CD box set devoted entirely to human death and suffering. People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913-1938 is a survey of early American folk styles–country, old-timey, blues, gospel, Cajun–that consists entirely of tunes chronicling acts of violence and destruction. They’re broken down into three categories, one per disc: Man vs. Machine, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Man (and Woman, Too).
The superb liner notes, by 78 rpm archaeologist Hank Sapoznik, make a point of reminding us that the American public was bloodthirsty long before Grand Theft Auto. Artists churned out records about death because people bought them. Obviously murder ballads have been around for a long time–they were brought here by some of the earliest British settlers–but in America a new fascination with timely reportage created a whole new industry of “event songs” or “news ballads.” Singer-songwriter Andrew Jenkins would probably have Geraldo Riviera’s job if he were alive today, reporting on location from one sensational disaster after another. His 1929 song “The Alabama Flood” was written while rescue efforts were still underway after the flood of the Pea River on March 14: “The little town of Elba met its fate / With cries and screams and groans / The people fled their homes / They tried to leave that town . . . it was too late.”
