Dave's Music #15 - Murder on the Mississippi Express

Photo Credit Design Flight

After I made a post in Facebook on my love of playlists with themes inspired by this weekend's two new playlists, Winter and Jan/Feb/Mar, I challenged my friends to give me a theme. My friend Carol Roth, one of the founders of Adventures in Americana gave me "Murder on the Mississippi Express" with the rules each song needed two of three elements murder, river, or trains.  Her examples were Cash's "Folsom Prison" or Isbell's "River"  Challenge accepted.  So let's walk through the songs.

1) The Long and Lonesome Murder Ballad of 99 Vanlandingham by Blaine and Leah Howard.  I'm going to count this as 2.5 points... the river reference is from "Black River Falls"; an obvious river town but that really was the only reference.

"Some said it was the alcohol that he could put away
Others talked about a lifetime working on the railway
Still others claimed the name was just too long to fit a line
Somehow everyone agreed to call him 99

Oh 99 Vanlandingham
You're famous now, a wanted man
First name Aloysius, the second Belvedere
On all the posters starting to appear

He met her at the station down in Black River Falls"

Blaine was a GRFF Songwriter contest winner and he's a heck of a nice guy from Fairchild WI.

2) Murder of Crows by Lindi Ortega is one of the reasons that I love these challenges.  I have no idea why this song is in my library, and it's not in Bandcamp... so here's the video:

I'm going to count it as 2 points because this line:

"Have mercy on my soul
Cause he's buried in the back near the tracks"

3) Mississippi by The Secret Sisters.  We saw them open for Brandi Carlile up at the Big Top in Bayfield, and they are wonderful.  Their murder ballad has the Mississippi, river or state, but the blood is in a crimson sea.  I'm going to count it as 2 points though I was tempted to go 1.5.

If you leave for Mississippi
I will beat you at your game
Brought you in this world and I
Can take you from it just the same
My dear one heard you whispering your plans to run
Off to marry some rich man's son
Bet he never met a poor man's gun
In the darkness you could not see
The drunken devil instructing me
Two bullets in a crimson sea
Now I'm certain that you'll never be
Taking off for Mississippi"

For Flashback Friday, I've added this great live video from the sisters.

4) Mississippi Moon by Greg Brown.  Mississippi river check, but the murder of the moon was more an attempted murder, so we'll count this only as 1.5 points but I just love this song.

So we went back to the river bank the next night at dusk
With spears that were made from willow branches and knives
And when that thing come up
Ah we flung our spears and we run to our secret hiding place
Deep in the woods.

5) Bull Mountain Bridge by Paul Thorn.  This definitely scores 2 and I bet from that bridge you could see a train track but it doesn't get into the song.  Amazingly you find yourself cheering and singing along to:

And the Hawk said, Take him on down below the Bull Mountain Bridge
Tie his hands and throw him in the river
You might as well give him his farewell party night
He said, Knock him in the headhes better off dead
Break his arms and throw him in the river
If anybody asks, just tell `em he committed suicide"

6) Sandoval's Ghost by Willy Porter with Carmen Nickerson.  You need to listen and watch this one as you become convinced these two could be the second coming of The Civil Wars, of course Willy's a better guitar player than John Paul.  You'll also be convinced Carmen is guilty as hell but Willy will be hanging for it.  It happened down by the river, so you can count this as a solid 2.

7) Black River Killer by Blitzen Trapper  Dang this project was fun if only for bringing back this song to new playlist to reappreciate.  The spooky electronic keys, and that chorus Oh When Oh When, Will the spirit come a calling for my soul again.  I guess I wouldn't get more credit for MULTIPLE murders and rivers appear in different settings and the train once in the killers journey.  I'll take the solid 3 points.

So I took a bus down to the Rio Grande
And I shot a man down on the edge of town
Then I stole me a horse and I rode it around
'Til the sheriff pulled me in and sat me down

Well the sheriff let me go with a knife and a song
So I took the first train up to Oregon
And I killed the first man that I came upon
'Cause the devil works quick, you know it don't take long

Then I went to the river for to take a swim
You know that black river water is as black as sin
And I washed myself clean as a newborn babe
And then I picked up a rock for to sharpen my blade

8) The Devil's Blues by Erik Koskinen  This song is likely in my hall of fame of songs.  I am a sucker for a well written story song that has a moral, and this one is "Don't marry your cousin"  Mom kills dad with the gun she bought him and later crashes her car in the river; counts as 2 solid points.  The studio cut rocks, but he's not on Bandcamp and I refuse to post a Spotify link, so here's the best video I could find of the song.

9) Tweeter and the Monkey Man - Traveling Wilburys (a Dylan tune)  Always looking for an excuse to listen to this classic Dylan tune.  ONE of this ballad's characters, and the only one that comes to mind that has a Trans as center of attention.  I'm going to use the river bridge to earn my 2 points, though the last verse I'm sure Dylan gave a nod to Johnny Cash's Orange Blossom Special with "I guess I'll go to Florida and get myself some sun"

The undercover cop was found face down in a field
The Monkey Man was on the river bridge, using Tweeter as a shield
Jan said to the Monkey Man, "I'm not fooled by Tweeter's curl
I knew him long before he became a Jersey Girl"

Since Bob isn't on Bandcamp to embed the song, how about I share the cover I put together a weekend back in 2011.  Lori was out and I was in the mood to work on a video.  All those takes to get all those words right; plus that fancy guitar lick.  It's been one of my favorite video cover songs that I've done. 

10) Ride that Train by Miss Tess  Another one of my favorite train songs and one I might be stretching the Mississippi again mentioned in verse two could be the state or the river, but she follows it with down to New Orleans so it's inferred.  Speaking of inference, why is she running to Mexico to keep him offer her mind?  One doesn't go to an extreme if it's just a break up, might there have been a MURDER?  Ok I'll stick to calling it 1.5 points.  Now here's both a video and Bandcamp link because I wanted you to see Miss Tess has some lead chops to go along with her main guitarist Thomas Bryon Eaton; even to have a nice duo part at the end.

11) Hanging Tree by the Band of Heathens.  Wow definitely have loved this group of Austin studio guys that created a band for a while, and the mix where it came from, Music Fog was alway one of the best places to see live videos made for YouTube.  I think they are doing much less now, but their archive is incredible.  Remember one of our taglines, "Good music doesn't have an expiration date"

The song might have momma killing daddy at the hanging tree for messing around with the preacher's wife. The hanging tree is down by the river, plus this family's a little disfunctional.  Momma might have died and the story teller has eyes on the preacher's wife now too.

Hangin' tree's down by the river's edge
We come up stream and peek over the ledge

My older brother he took his life
And I took to peepin' on the preacher's wife
I left my mamma when I was sixteen
Strung up in the limbs of the hangin' tree

12) Banks of the Ohio by The Pines  I was really thinking with say maybe a week I could find another dozen of songs if I went to the vinyl library and got into more of my folk song collections.  Luckily The Pines put out a wonderful CD of traditional songs including this one where a lover kills their love just to keep them from being with somebody else.  Of course it happens down by the river.  Shall we gather at the river, yikes maybe not with everyone.

I wandered home 'tween twelve and one
I cried, "My God, what have I done?"
I've killed the only man I love
He would not take me for his bride

They aren't in Bandcamp and the piece is only in YouTube as one of those song files I hate because it just rips off their music; but it's shareable.  It's a great cd, look it up.

For Flashback Friday revisit I added the ONE Click YouTube playlist that I started mid year in 2022.

Of course this was tremendously fun, thanks for the recommendation.  If you have a theme, challenge me in a DM or post a comment here.

Hope you loved the journey ... remember to follow us and as always Good Music has NO Expiration Date, so if you are listening to this ten years from now, it still will be awesome music.  If this is a first time visit, check out the index of themes for past editions.

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