Murder Ballad, the rock musical by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash that premiered in 2012, is a contemporary, theatrical twist on a tradition that spans centuries and cultures.
Murder ballads were a popular form of entertainment in 16th and 17th century Scotland, England, and Ireland. They are a subgenre of the traditional ballad, a narrative song that uses a recognizable formula to recount the details of a crime. The murder can be true or fictional, with European ballads frequently venturing into the realm of the supernatural, involving retribution from the afterlife. On occasion, they follow the murderer to jail or the gallows, serving as a cautionary tale for the audience. A murder ballad may be told from multiple perspectives: it can be narrated by the murderer, victim, or an interloper who bears no relation to the crime in question. The ballad “Tom Dooley,” for instance, portrays the murderer in a sympathetic light; “Lord Randall” is sung by the victim, with the narrator becoming ill and realizing he’s been poisoned; and in “Lamkin,” the crime and subsequent event are presented without bias.
American ballads of the 19th and 20th century borrow themes, tools, and plots from their European predecessors. This overlap can be extreme, to the point that the Irish ballad of “The Wexford Girl,” when adapted into “The Knoxville Girl,” only changes setting from Ireland to Tennessee. American murder ballads were typically based on historical events that transpired when the songs were written. The ballad “Frankie and Johnny,” popular in the late 1800s, tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds out that Johnny, her lover, has been unfaithful to her and shoots him, leading to her arrest and execution. The ballad was very likely inspired by an 1899 murder in St. Louis, Missouri when a 22-year-old dancer named Frankie Baker stabbed or shot her 17-year-old lover Allen Britt, who was having an affair.
In contemporary culture, murder ballads have become part of the mainstream, with songwriters such as Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and now Juliana Nash, employing this ancient form to discuss contemporary issues.
—Elizabeth Dinkova