Cheerfully vulgar, revelling in gore, and always with an eye on the main chance, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest horrible murders to an insatiable public. Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Instead they mutate, morphing to suit local place names as they criss cross the Atlantic and continue to fascinate each generation s biggest musical stars. Stagger Lee s "biographers" alone include Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Dr John, The Clash and Nick Cave. No two tell his story in quite the same way. Covering eight classic murder ballads, including Knoxville Girl , Tom Dooley and Frankie & Johnny , Paul Slade investigates the real-life murder which inspired each song and traces its musical development down the decades. Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds' Mick Harvey, Laura Cantrell, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and a host of other musicians add their own insights. From the reviews "A fascinating piece of work." - Greil Marcus. "Captivating cultural history." - Record Collector. "A brilliantly simple idea, and a simply brilliant book." - fRoots. "The pace of [Slade's] narrative never falters." - Songlines. "Slade's passion for the music and a grisly crime tale soaks every page." - Spiral Earth. "Pick it up once and you're hooked." - Folkwords. "A fascinating read from cover to cover." - Fatea. "A major contribution to the annals of folk." - Goldmine. "Expertly researched" - R2.