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The Berkshire Tragedy, aka – Knoxville Girl

The folk song Knoxville Girl was made famous by the Louvin Brothers in their opus “Tragic Songs of Life,” but was merely a tradition of several hundred years of folk tales, street songs, and eventually folk songs. Recorded first in the United States by the Carter Family (that I know of), Knoxville Girl is the story of a man that kills his girlfriend/acquaintance in a fit of passion. The song is usually not very explicit, but through the various bluegrass renditions and into the country/alt-country renditions it becomes much darker and detailed. Nick Cave’s version and the Handsome Family’s version are among the most explicit of the modern versions.

To me, this song represents the country tradition – it is human and unapologetic in its subject matter; it’s not complicated or sophisticated in the song patter or verses; and it is endlessly flexible in being adapted to new repertoires. I hope this song is covered indefinitely.

The original ballad can be found (try googling them) under the names “
The Oxford, Lexington, Waxweed, Wexford or Knoxville Girl, The Cruel Miller, The Wittam Miller girl…” I was also able to find a neat collaborative writing project at the University of Minnesota English Department of “Nineteenth Century English Street Ballads” which has a lot more to add to this discussion than I can. If you can, give “The Subgenre of Murder Ballads in the Street Literature of Britain” a read.

1937 – The Carter Family – Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You
1937 – The Blue Sky Boys – Story of the Knoxville Girl
1956 – The Louvin Brothers – Knoxville Girl
1975 – The Outlaws – Knoxville Girl
1975 – Jim & Jesse and The Virginia Boys – Knoxville Girl
1986 – Elvis Costello – Knoxville Girl
1988 – Jimmy Martin – Knoxville Girl
1996 – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Knoxville Girl
1996 – The Lemonheads – Knoxville Girl
1996 – BR5-49 – Knoxville Girl
2003 – The Handsome Family – Knoxville Girl
2005 – Roger Alan Wade – Knoxville Girl
2007 – Chris Thile & Michael Daves – Knoxville Girl
2009 – The Fox Hunt – Knoxville Girl

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