Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads And Disaster Songs CD

On his second album following a lengthy retirement, Charlie Louvin steps comfortably back into the style that made the Louvin Brothers' name, with no feints towards modernity. CHARLIE LOUVIN SINGS MURDER BALLADS AND DISASTER SONGS is very much of a piece with classic Louvin Brothers albums like SATAN IS REAL or TRAGIC SONGS OF LIFE: haunting, haunted versions of familiar folk tunes like "The Wreck of the Old 97," "Katy Dear," and "Mary of the Wild Moor." Louvin even returns to his own songbook for a stark new version of the Louvin Brothers' terrifying 1956 single, "Wreck on the Highway," sounding even more chilling than the comparatively sweet-voiced original.

Recording information: Beech House, Nashville, TN; Wall To Wall Sound, Chicago, IL.

Photographer: Joshua Black Wilkins.

Arranger: Charlie Louvin.

Personnel: Ben & Kate Hall (vocals, guitar); Ben Hall (vocals, guitars); Chris Scruggs (vocals, steel guitar); William Tyler (guitar, guitars); Billy Contreras, Andrew Bird (fiddle); Matt Allen (organ); Pete Cummings (bass instrument); Ben Martin (drums).

Audio Mixer: Mark Nevers.

Rolling Stone (p.96) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "MURDER BALLADS features a scalded steam-train engineer, a lovelorn suicide and other doomed souls, sketched by Louvin's gentle warble and a stately string band."
Billboard (p.45) - "Louvin's once-crystalline voice does wear his 81 years, but it also carries deeper understanding of the heartache central to the disaster songs he first recorded decades ago..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.109) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Like Johnny Cash, the surviving half of the legendary Louvin Brothers has no problem singing about God and sin with equal gusto. Nor with working with Nashville outsiders -- his producer is Mark Nevers of Lambchop."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] affecting versions of the Carter Family's 'My Texas Girl,' Merle Travis' 'Dark As A Dungeon' and the traditional 'Darling Corey,' along with the inspired steel guitar work of Chris Scruggs throughout..."