Oh, Death Little Joe Crossing no 9 Knoxville Girl Wreck on the Highway Will the circle be unbroken Long black veil

Oh, Death has to be up there.

I want this one played at my funeral.

Holy shit... Knoxville Girl is morbid as hell: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvErkA\_u\_BI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvErkA_u_BI) Little Joe: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMEBWZaWcyY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMEBWZaWcyY) Oh, Death: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xmRWj7gJEU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xmRWj7gJEU) Crossing No 9: A great Sam bush version. A commenter on this video is Norman Blakes son and he mentions the song is a real story and every bit of it is true. : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9OWTwpX4RQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9OWTwpX4RQ) Wreck on the Highway: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToaB6UM-61E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToaB6UM-61E) Long Black Veil: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnXUPlsn31o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnXUPlsn31o)

Thats a helluva list.

I do dearly love Wreck on the highway

You'll never leave Harlan alive

songs about death/dying/missing loved ones/going to heaven Lonely Tombs Rank Stranger I'll Fly Away Where the Soul of Man Never Dies Murder ballads: Tom Dooley Rose Connelly/Down in the Willow Garden The Wind and the Rain Pretty Polly Omie Wise

Tom Dooley was written about my kin, my great grand parents were friends with Doc 😊 Edit: my kin was Lori Foster

I just filled in on bass for his nephew Saturday. Fucking flattering to be asked.

I visited your kins grave before! I got irritated at how the song is not like the true story at all, so I wrote an entire concept album telling the truth, and went and found everyones graves to pay my respects and hopefully attain blessings.

Killin’ songs is a category of bluegrass 😂

Lots of Gillian Welch, check out her song Annabel in particular 😢

Who's Gonna Dig These Graves by Whiskey Shivers. Bottom of the River by Delta Rae.

[Oh, Death](https://open.spotify.com/track/6KrqXNAv5A7bl3slfp6dfY?si=RE-ydf5ARF2t8HaOCmQbRw) (but I really like the Camper Van Beethoven version) [Polly Vaughn](https://open.spotify.com/track/0EPJB1ozouVQYW1qfHtWS1?si=SsNkQA4wRTi2H50_U7pVuA)

"The little girl & the dreadful snake" is a Bill Monroe classic

Dreadful Wind and Rain https://youtu.be/SybfYzby9UI?si=upgS2ceYCQNaOjif

Beat me to it! (AND picked the same version I'd have.) "There were two sisters came walkin' down the stream Oh the wind and rain The one behind pushed the other one in Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain Johnny gave the youngest a gay gold ring Oh the wind and rain Didn't give the oldest one anything Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain They pushed her into the river to drown Oh the wind and rain And watched her as she floated down Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain Floated 'till she came to a miller's pond Oh the wind and rain Mama oh father there swims a swan Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain The miller pushed her out with a fishing hook Oh the wind and rain Drew that fair maid from the brook Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain He left her on the banks to dry Cryin' oh the wind and rain And a fiddlin' fool come passing by Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain Out of the woods came a fidder fair Oh the wind and rain Took thirty strands of her long yellow hair Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain And he made a fiddle bow of her long yellow hair Oh the wind and rain He made a fiddle bow of her long yellow hair Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain He made fiddle pegs of her long finger bones Oh the wind and rain He made fiddle pegs of her long finger bones Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain And he made a little fiddle of her breast bone Oh the wind and rain The sound could melt a heart of stone Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain And the only tune that the fiddle would play Was oh the wind and rain The only tune that the fiddle would play Was oh the dreadful wind and rain"

Fun fact: There's a Mongolian/Tuvan version of this legend where the murder victim whose bones and hair are used to make the instrument is a beloved horse. That's why bowed string instruments from that region traditionally have a horsehead carving at the top.

Thanks for that tidbit. Fascinating!

All of them. Growing up, my kids would ask me after I sang to them at bedtime “Pop, Don’t you know any songs that doesn’t involve shooting or stabbing or poisoning or train wrecks or drowning?”

Kristin Hersh, with family from Lookout Mt. In Tennessee, once recorded an album of murder ballads and lullabies, named *Murder, Misery, and then Goodnight*. It’s folk though, not bluegrass. https://www.discogs.com/release/383738-Kristin-Hersh-Murder-Misery-And-Then-Goodnight

Thank you

Lonesome Ole Home

Google “murder ballad”.

Undone is Sorrow - the original version is by Ola Belle Reed but my personal favorite is Crooked Still's; it's upbeat and an absolute marvel of composition Wayfaring Stranger - Rhiannon Giddens and Francisco Turrisi's cover Goldmine - I Draw Slow (about prostitution) Yarrow - Red Tail Ring

Engine 143.

Nobody has said “Banks of the Ohio” yet? Lots of murder in bluegrass.

I think this was originally a blues song by Leadbelly, but there’s been a whole lot of bluegrass versions of it (and my pawpaw used to pick ‘n sing it): “In the Pines.”

I'd never call Nirvana even bluegrass-adjacent but I think they got the spirit with their version. Daaaaaark

Well I just watched this on YT. Damn. This is absolutely the darkest version of this dark dark song I have ever heard.

It was just a few months before Kurt's suicide so.....

Yeah. That made it even worse. The only thing I can even think of close to this is Johnny Cash “Hurt.” I didn’t know that was a cover when I first heard it. I’m gonna say Kurt owns that song now, like Johnny owns “Hurt.” I’ll never be able to hear “In the Pines” without hearing that version in my head ever again. I don’t know whether I should thank you or curse you.

I do apologize for any pain I might have caused, sincerely. I also think Dolly's version is profound in a totally different way [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNHrqYwrikY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNHrqYwrikY)

Trent Reznor said that Johnny owns that song now. The night he died, I played it on repeat and wept manly tears.

When Cobain hollers on the last verse breaking his voice...chilling.

If you have Spotify, there are some cool playlists like Southern Gothic with stuff like Colter Wall, Devil Makes Three, Whiskey Shivers, and Brandi Carlisle among many others you might like. Also one called Spooky Banjo Time I enjoy that has a lot of great stuff.

None of that is bluegrass

and I dont understand why its a recurring theme here. I guess its, they have a guy that plays a banjo in the band...must be bluegrass

"Panthers on the Mountainside" (Jon Charles Dwyer) "Dark as a Dungeon" (lots of versions, but I love Kathy Mattea's)

Undone is Sorrow - the original version is by Ola Belle Reed but my personal favorite is Crooked Still's; it's upbeat and an absolute marvel of composition Wayfaring Stranger - Rhiannon Giddens and Francisco Turrisi's cover Goldmine - I Draw Slow (about prostitution) Yarrow - Red Tail Ring

Undone is Sorrow - the original version is by Ola Belle Reed but my personal favorite is Crooked Still's; it's upbeat and an absolute marvel of composition Wayfaring Stranger - Rhiannon Giddens and Francisco Turrisi's cover Goldmine - I Draw Slow (about prostitution) Yarrow - Red Tail Ring

Undone in Sorrow - the original version is by Ola Belle Reed but my personal favorite is Crooked Still's; it's upbeat and an absolute marvel of composition Wayfaring Stranger - Rhiannon Giddens and Francisco Turrisi's cover Goldmine - I Draw Slow (about prostitution) Yarrow - Red Tail Ring

You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive and Dolly's Mountain Angel.

There are so many but Poor Ellen Smith comes to top of mind.

good one. shot through the heart. I think King did a good version.

My favorite cover is Neko Case

Wow! As a Canadian I had NO idea that this was a thing. Thank you for opening my eyes and I see a new spotify playlist in my very near future. <3 Thank you for sharing!

Rose Connelly Pretty Polly Pollys Revenge

🎵 Little Knoxville Girl 🎶the most morbid bluegrass song ever.

https://youtu.be/lIzXMDKtg9o?si=gN5DkLtjCOIHkk5Q

Bluegrass Widow by Robert Earl Keen

Find the Earl Brothers album, “Whiskey, Women, and Death.” Buncha Appalachians made it in San Francisco 15ish years ago, and it’s the coolest, spookiest bluegrass album ever released.

Not super morbid but "Simpson's Holler"

Not especially morbid, but haunting: Katie Cruel by Karen Dalton

I thought I heard you singing by Melissa Carper & Rebecca Patek always brings tears to my eyes. ETA Golden Bird by Levon Helm is a good one too.

Wreck of the Old 97 Pretty Polly Will the Circle Ve Unbroken

On the Banks of the Ohio Bury me Under the Weeping Willow Perhaps these are more old country than bluegrass but the original versions by the Carter Family were spooky to me as a kid.

Cause we write songs that make you feel deeply.

Suicide Blues - Stringbean Long Black Veil - Lefty Frizzell Jesse Got Trapped in a Coalmine - Goodnight, Texas Pyscho - Eddie Noack

Frankie and Johnny-Doc Watson

Caney fork river by Balsam Range, cheatin wife and murder.

Banks of the Ohio

"Country Death Song" by the Violent Femmes. Yes, the Violent Femmes

George Collins The Frozen Girl

Darkest of the dark - The Banks of the Ohio

LA County or They say I’ll never Go Home by Ralph Stanley II

You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive, Dark as a Dungeon

Oh, and Carrie Brown by Steve Earle and Del McCoury Band for a more humorous murder ballad.