Staring into the heart of darkness.
A waning moon, a cold wind, streaming clouds; Tuesday is the perfect night for Murder Ballads when the Echo and The New Los Angeles Folk Festival celebrate the Dark Side of Folk and the imminent eve of the dead with bloody ballads, beautiful victims, and the minstrels of murder who mourn them.
Among the celebrants of departed souls:
Central Valley’s banjo-picking son (and Fleet Foxes opener) Frank Fairfield plays “Unheard Ofs and Forgotten Abouts” from the 78 records that he collects and “mashes up one thing with another” to make powerful songs of loss and lament.
With Louisiana family legend and charlatan-revivalist-turned-preacher Vaud Comeaux as inspiration, Vaud & the Villains bring the passion to the play and the wail to the woe-is-me.
Amanda Jo Williams (“channeling how aliens would tell us to be”) teams with Olentangy John (clawhammer banjo; lots of twang) and Horse Thieves (country meets vaudeville) for a supergroup by request. It’s going to be a celebration of sadness, a carnival of carnage.
And if the overwhelming evidence of love as a dark, dark thing has you all skittish, fortune-teller Madame Pamita can tell you if your lover’s intentions are good or ill.
Then again, you’ve always been one to take a chance on jealousy, passion, and a finely honed knife….
Ready? U Know U Want 2 Go Go….
