balladeer by Jodi Jones

This record is a collection of songs in the rich tradition of the balladeers of the Pennsylvania mountains. They recount stories ranging from disaster in the coal fields, to tragedy among the white pine forests of the Sesquehanna, and the homesick longing of the immigrant steel mill laborer in Pittsburgh. Like the old singers and storytellers, I’m presenting you with a mix of songs both traditional and of my own composition (with some help from ballad melodies as old as time immemorial) in hopes of keeping the musical heritage of my homeland alive.

Orpheus, 1893 is an original balladic retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Euridyce through the lives of immigrant steelworkers in Pittsburgh. John Murphy’s Grave - a traditional ballad narrating the mining disaster of Bantyre in 1877 - made its way to the Westmoreland coalfields with the Scottish folks who settled there to mine soft, bituminous coal. Sweet White Pine is a song I’ve written about the legend of the White Woman of Murphy’s Bar, Susan Hilbish, whose tragic death at her own hand haunts the village of Shamokin to this day.

Two of these are performed without accompaniment entirely, one simply with my own guitar, after the example of those one-man band folk troubadours who rambled across the wilds of the Pennsylvania frontier through lumber camps and mill towns to trade their songs for beer, bread, and spare coin.

Humble songstress and spinner of tall tales.