This episode of Cocaine and Drying Stones tells an extremely disturbing story.

Please make sure you are aware of your environment when listening.

This is not suitable content for children, or anyone who shouldn't hear a graphic

and detailed account of torture and murder.

Also, this episode represents my first attempt at making a podcast.

Please listen to any other episode that's currently available for a more

accurate representation of what this show really sounds like.

Thank you.

The word ballad comes from a Latin word meaning to dance.

And originally, ballads were written to be performed with dancers

acting out the lyrics live, like a miniature ballet,

and ballet comes from that same Latin word.

Even after the art forms branched apart, ballads remained focused

on telling a specific story through direct narrative.

Ballads have always been written largely by and for the working class.

So the type of stories you'd hear in medieval ballads are the same stories we tell

ourselves in modern movies.

You'd have ballads for your love conquers all romance,

immature comedy, tear-jerking tragedy,

tales of heroic glory, and of course, murder ballads.

While the authors of traditional ballads go largely unnamed,

most murder ballads can be traced back to the real killings of real people.

...