“Thank you again for your tireless work to not only create the most exhaustive resource in existence for the history of this one particular song, but also for opening up a whole fascinating world of folk music to interested inquirers like myself.”
So ended a letter from Stephen Brannen, in which he wrote about a visit to
New Orleans, an encounter with “St. James Infirmary,” and a project that saw him recording songs about “bodily death, corpses, funerals, and graves.”
Mr. Brannen wrote that contemporary society has sterilized death, and removed it from our shared experience. We no longer, for example, sit with the body while family and neighbours gather around. This has had a pivotal effect on our society, on our philosophy, and on our relationships.
He wrote: “Your work helped to spur me on to a project that I titled ‘Mortal Remains’ (somewhat cheekily after the final vignette from the movie ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’). A blog post explaining the project is here…. Some of these songs have their roots in the 18th century or earlier, some were composed well into the 20th; but they all boldly describe a time before the industrialization of human corpse disposal and the ‘disappearance of death.’”
Mr. Brannen has a nice, light touch when performing these songs. They are well worth listening to.
Thank you, Stephen.
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