People Take Warning!: Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913-1938

yeah, I've listened and have written about it. The song that kills me is the last one on disc 1--"When That Great Ship Went Down," about the Titanic, by William and Versey Smith, from 1927. wildest blues-sorta-thing I've ever heard, amazing. but yeah, great stuff all 'round.

Yeah! Those Titanic songs are great -- really interesting to hear how big a deal it was. Though hearing all of them on one disc makes me think of the old Onion headline: "WORLD'S BIGGEST METAPHOR HITS ICE-BERG."

I downloaded a "sampler" version of the disc from eMusic. All five songs -- The Murder of the Lawson Family, Ohio Prison Fire, Titanic Blues, The Story of the Mighty Mississippi and Wreck of the Old 97 -- are compelling. "Absorbing," in the initial post, is a good word to describe these songs. But I'm also a sucker for this type of stuff, as I already had The Music of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics, 1927 -- 1937, Vol. I and American Primitive, Vol. II.

Given the comments above, I suppose the rest of the disc (or box set?) is worth tracking down. I was hoping it would be available on eMusic, but I now understand there's an informative booklet in it that might make owning the physical discs a better option.

Yeah, the booklet (which i actually only have pdf scans of) is really interesting and helpful. Pretty detailed accounts of the events the songs are dealing with, as well as a ton of great photos/newspaper clippings/etc.