I’ve written a bit here about Crankenstein and music in the past — see “By Way of Sorrow” and “Jesus to a Child” — and here we are in conversation about one of her favorite genres: depressing and distressing Celtic and Appalachian folk music. There are no explicit lyric warnings on these songs, but would Tipper Gore want today’s youth listening to ballads about murder, mayhem, syphilis or cannibalism?
This week’s Crankcast has chapters, for anyone who wants to skip ahead, but I found that feature a little frustrating since it won’t work on anything that isn’t already loaded. Also, and I think this goes without saying, when I mention my dad’s culture in the last chapter and joke that I don’t relate to it, I’m referring to his Celtic ancestry, not ‘white’ as a race. Unlike my dad, I’m half-Ashkenazi, a group that knows our whiteness comes with an asterisk, but I don’t claim to be anything but white.
YouTube links:
- “The Pills of White Mercury” (Old Blind Dogs)
- “The Rose and the Lindsey O'” (Old Blind Dogs)
- “Omie Wise” (Tim Eriksen)
- “The Cruel Sister” (Old Blind Dogs)
- “Wind and Rain” (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
- “Boston” (Tim Eriksen)
And a quick site note about Cranky Lesbian: The work that’s been going on behind-the-scenes there is nearly done. We’re still with the same inferior host, unfortunately, but I’ve made technical changes that should speed it up a little. If you encountered missing graphics, text or links over the past 10 days or so, it should be fixed now, though you might need to hit ‘refresh.’ The oldest posts, some of which are 15+ years old, will take a few days longer to process.