Murder Ballads and Ghost Stories

There are things far scarier in life than the tales of monsters and ghouls that spooked us when we were younger. Ghosts from our past: former lovers, regrets for what we wish we had done, or what we wish we had done differently, pain and suffering, and the way we treat each other are much scarier than shadows and loud noises. This playlist highlights some real-life scary situations by being comprised of murder ballads and ghost stories. Though the latter may present themselves in a very different way than those we think of in the traditional sense, they are very much tales of people and scenarios from our past that continue to haunt us today.

The playlist starts out with an upbeat song that has a lot of fun lyrically with word play about bones and skeletons when talking about a lover who’s not being faithful and the protagonist in the song knows that they are sneaking around. The songs in this group take the listener on a journey that asks them to rethink exactly how they define “spooky” and “scary.” From leaving behind childhood and discovering that there are far more terrifying things out there than what one may have imagined to be lurking in the darkness, just past the shadows cast at night by the night light left on by one’s parents upon strong insistence. The world's realities that we all come to have to face are the true horrors with which we find ourselves having to grapple.

The fears we face growing up realizing we’ve become exactly what we always swore we wouldn’t and having to come to terms with what that means and how we are going to deal with it, is pretty scary in my book. The ways in which society lies, cheats, steals, and harms its citizens, allowing the systems and cruel individuals to hurt so many souls is truly terrifying. The fact that so many people have to silently suffer, unable to get any help when they are in desperate situations, so they are forced to take desperate measures, is something that we all should find frightening. The way punishment is all-too-often viewed as justice is something that keeps people with a conscience up at night. Us, ourselves, turning into the bad guy and realizing that we need to be stopped if we can’t stop ourselves, knowing that the demons are inside of us, that we are one in the same, that’s a scary story. The way our pasts can grab a hold of our minds, thoughts, and lives and hold us hostage, caged in a prison of our pasts, consumed by ghosts of what once were, not being able to move on in life and create new memories and move independently, free of the chains that tether us to those past selves and situations is the essence of a ghost story as far as I’m concerned. I consider the stab in the heart that we feel when someone whom we believed loved us treats us poorly to be a scary tale. The same is true regarding the way we all walk around like zombies, controlled by what we are told we should want, do, look like, and be, numbed by the drugs that are pumped into us so we don’t feel anything anymore.

Since this is supposed to be a Halloween party playlist, I tried my best to keep the tunes I included more upbeat and light-hearted, as much as was possible in keeping true to the theme. From classics to modern takes on the timeless tales of love gone wrong and broken hearts that just can’t let go of what was, this playlist includes ghosts, skeletons, bodies, graves, monsters, vampires, devils, and darkness largely in the country music genre, with a few notable outliers. I hope it spooks you and gives you the chills. More than anything, I hope it puts you in that Halloween mood.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/724BcQxJNO59Aqii6wq05c

Playlist:

Skeletons - Brothers Osborne

Martha Divine - Ashley McBryde

Work Song - Hozier

Monsters - Eric Church

Turpentine - Brandi Carlile

Just Like Him - Brandy Clark

Digging Up Bones - Randy Travis

Creepin’ - Eric Church

Brokenheartsville - Joe Nichols

Graveyard - Kelsea Ballerini

Goodbye Earl - The Chicks

The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Reba McEntire

no body, no crime - Taylor Swift

Lightning - Eric Church

Stripes - Brandy Clark

Black Magic - Ruston Kelly

Voodoo Doll - Ashley McBryde

If We Were Vampires - Jason Isbell

Rich and Miserable - Kenny Chesney

Take a Little Pill - Brandy Clark

Sedated - Hozier

Mama Werewolf - Brandi Carlile