[DP] Fw. anti-dp cd

[Laura and Bill]

Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:04:47 -0600 (CST)
From: Rick Halperin <rhalperi at post.cis.smu.edu>
Subject: death penalty news-------USA, TEXAS




March 20


USA:

On Record Against The Death Penalty 


There is nothing quite as rare these days as a CD containing an activist 
political or social agenda. Popular musicians seem afraid or perhaps not 
even interested in commenting on current events for a single track, much 
less an entire album. Even the Sept. 11 attacks and ensuing war haven't 
produced even a handful of notable songs. Rap and hip-hop artists, once 
the principal conveyors of the street's political thought and anger, are 
now mostly cartoonish thugs glorifying criminality or wallowing in 
nihilistic excess and, ultimately, inconsequence. There may be a 
political message in that, but it's not intentional.

"The Executioner's Last Songs," a new album on Chicago's alt-country 
Bloodshot Records label, makes no bones about its political position. "To 
Benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project" is stamped plainly 
on the cover. And yet this collection of 18 songs -- traditional tunes, 
country standards and a few originals -- makes its case in the most 
interesting fashion.

Though Tony Fitzpatrick's half-song, half-sermon "Idiot Whistle" points 
out that in Illinois "17 men just walked off of death row after being 
exonerated by DNA testing," for the most part these songs aren't about 
innocents being sent to slaughter but rather about murderers and moral 
wretches, maybe not all monsters, but certainly flawed men and women, 
jailed for grisly crimes and often unrepentant.

Leading off with the particularly chilling "Knoxville Girl," Brett Sparks 
doesn't engender much sympathy when he sings, "I took her by her golden 
curls and I dragged her 'round and 'round / Throwing her into the river 
that flows from Knoxville town." Darker fare follows. Longtime death 
penalty opponent Steve Earle sings "Tom Dooley," another traditional song 
about a murderous paramour, and on Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets," 
Jenny Toomey's absolutely haunting delivery feels like a visit from the 
grave.

The country covers included here are especially well chosen, with Rosie 
Flores singing Hank Williams's desperate "I'll Never Get Out of This 
World Alive" and Edith Frost performing a straightforward version of 
Merle Haggard's mournful death row lament "Sing Me Back Home." And on her 
cover of Ralph Stanley's "O Death," Diane Izzo provides a distinctly 
different performance than the harrowing a cappella version for which 
Stanley recently received a Grammy Award. Another highlight is Chris 
Ligon's "The Great State of Texas," which presents the gentle musings of 
a man about to be executed. It is both heartbreaking and funny and, 
finally, completely depressing: "Say goodbye to my buddies and to you my 
dear wife, 'cause the great state of Texas is taking my life."

But why fight the death penalty with so many songs about coldblooded 
killers? In his liner notes, Jon Langford, best known as a founding 
member of the Mekons and whose Pine Valley Cosmonauts back the album's 
artists, offers this explanation: "Here's a little historical trawling 
and purging to aid and support the long-civilizing march against the 
death penalty in this earth's richest land (lest it be condemned to 
repeat its misdeed forever)."

These songs are reminders, then, of the present, not the past. And rather 
than explain away murderous deeds, these songs puts them in their 
starkest terms. Instead of making excuses for killers, the album seems to 
argue a message that, particularly in vengeful times, not everyone wants 
to hear: Spare them anyway.

(To hear a free Sound Bite from this album, call Post-Haste at 
202-334-9000 and press 8161.) 

(source: Washington Post)