Murder Ballads and Givens Books & Little Dickens

 

Cover of Murder Ballads: Illustrated Lyrics &
Lore, by Katy Horan

WIR: Murder Ballads: Illustrated Lyrics & Lore

No, you are not flashing back to my earlier blog.

If you've known me for a bit, you'll be familiar with Murder Ballad Monday, which was a blog I co-founded and edited for about 6 years, up to about 6 years ago. That project was a hugely meaningful one for me in lots of ways, but I think for my purposes generally ran its course. Happily, SingOut! magazine still maintains the archive of posts, although some of the embedded links and videos have gone dead.

Katy Horan's 2025 introduction to the genre is heartfelt, nuanced, and beautiful gateway to a complicated subject, involving not only horror and violence, but a host of other individual and social sins, including misogyny and racism. With stunning contributions of her own visual art, she provides a quite winning starter course for others--speaking both the powerful force of the songs, as well as their many challenging dimensions.

Each of the 20 chapters tells the basic story of a song, provides as a succinct backround, and a short recording history for each. As it's a book, the listening will of course be left up to you and your own devices, but she does provide a version of the lyrics for each of the songs, and her distinctive art work, which has a good "ear" and "eye" for the music.

Horan's explorations do at least two things well. First, she's able to engage the songs sincerely because she understands that exploring a theme through song is different from endorsing that theme. That is, singing about murder or other individual or social sins is not in itself an endorsement or celebration of them. 

For some reason, that benefit of the doubt for artistic distance is not as readily given to singers or songwriters as it is some other artists. For instance, we don't suppose Agatha Christie was a terrible person just because she like to write about murder. A recent installment of NPR's Hidden Brain podcast discussed how horror film-makers and even horror film viewers are not given this space--with reviewers' critiques sometimes focusing more on condemning the "kind of person" who would go see such a film than on the film itself.

I've seen many genre critiques that make overly facile, indeed presumptuous, suppositions about artists' and listeners' inner motivations in exploring murder ballads. Horan, to her credit, doesn't go there, and indeed acknowledges the powerful, meaningful, and creative tension in her own attachment to the genre.

Without dipping too far back into MBM territory, one of my go-to illustrations that art and endorsement are different things is a performance of "Poor Ellen Smith" by Crooked Still (here for official audio; here for an audience video of a live performance). Among the two main variants of that song, Crooked Still performs the more rampantly misogynistic one. sung however, in the gentle voice of Aoife O'Donovan. All kinds of interesting space opens up in the cognitive dissonance between the words we hear and the voice we hear them in. 

Second, Horan gives space to recognize that the times and places that spawned these songs may be different and meaningfully alien to our contemporary sensibilities. Her discussions of "Lamkin" and "Marrowbones" toward the end of this collection give space for the "weirdness" between that time and this. I've discussed in MBM posts how difference between 19th century "courting culture," and 20th century "dating culture" might affect our understanding of how these songs functioned for folks at various times. 

Horan's volume is a fine combination of sound, sight, and sense, blending an artistic vision fully in-line with the Gothic themes and folk traditions of these songs. Murder Ballad Monday had a small cadre of contributors and 6+ years of writing to cover a lot of territory, and there's some overlap here. Horan cites some posts from my fellow Co-Founders in the end-notes. She also provides recording histories and recommended reading for those wishing to take even deeper dives. To that latter list, I would add Steven L. Jones's Murder Ballads, Old & New: A Dark & Bloody Record. Steve's book reworks much of his Murder Ballad Monday material, adding quite a bit more, across an even broader vision of the genre.

AWIGI: Givens Books & Little Dickens

I hope Danny Givens and his family and colleagues at Givens Books & Little Dickens in Lynchburg, Virginia will forgive me for pairing their delightful store with this grisly content. In some respects, what better place than in the Piedmont to find a book on this particular cultural heritage? Indeed, the events of "Poor Ellen Smith," mentioned above, happened not too far south of Lynchburg, across the border in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That said, the atmosphere inside the store radiates welcome, wonder, and discovery--for both adults and kids.

I stopped into GB&LD on a rainy day in May, 2025. I was on a bit of a retreat, and staying at some friends' nearby lake house. I made some day trips to Lynchburg and Roanoke. By rainy day, I mean:

Dashboard photo from the parking lot of Givens Books 
& Little Dickens

My phone was telling me the cloudburst was soon to pass, and I wasn't in a particular hurry. Good thing I already had something to read with me.

Once I got in the store, though, I was immediately drawn in by the overall vibe. To my immediate left was the new books portion of the store, and to my right was the kids' section, including both books and toys. Behind the central info desk and cashier station was a cafe, and the prospect of a solid used book section toward the back left of the store. 

My son had recently stumbled across Horan's book at a bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, and he sent me a WhatsApp message about it. After a little bit of browsing, I figured I would look for it at Givens. I did need a little help, which was happily provided by a staff member behind the desk. She looked it up in the system, as it had just come in.

The brief history of the store on its website relates that it's been family operation for five decades. I dropped Danny Givens's name at the top of this section, as he was mentioned specifically by a friend of mine in the area after I posted about my visit on Facebook. She spoke up to say that Givens was a "key player in local economics and hometown pride." My own visit showed how the store promotes the solid rationale behind local, independent bookstores--with posters pitching "buy local" and explaining the jobs impact behind local retailer:

Poster inside GB&LD (5/13/25)

Painted orange and blue, GB&LD's exterior looks like a converted warehouse or garage, but the inside is warm and welcoming. As I've only visited Lynchburg that one day, and only a couple stores, it's difficult for me to speak to its accessibility for folks in the region. (For context, I live in an urban, academic neighborhood that has at least 6 good independent bookstores within easy walking distance from my home, and a city that affords me access to dozens of others through transit.) I welcome correction if I'm wrong, but it feels to me that getting to GB&LD requires a drive, but if you have a car, it's worth it.

You can take a video tour of the store here.

Givens Books & Little Dickens is set to celebrate their 50th year in business in early 2026. Congrats! Highly recommended as a regional bookstore with strong inventory, good shelf-curation, helpful booksellers, and a welcoming vibe. 

Yours truly at the slightly less rainy
tail end of my visit.