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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Executioner's Last Songs is an album with a political purpose--artists' proceeds benefit charitable organizations working to end the death penalty--but by and large it doesn't preach. Instead, Jon Langford, his Pine Valley Cosmonauts, and a bevy of guest vocalists--many of whom also appeared on the Cosmonauts' cowboy-jazz covers record, Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills--simply sing "songs of murder, mob-law, and cruel, cruel punishment." Although "stars" like Steve Earle and Neko Case chip in, the best cuts come from lesser lights deploying a range of tactics: Some are faithful, including Edith Frost (who covers Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home") and Brett Sparks of the Handsome Family ("Knoxville Girl"), while others take chances that pay off--in particular Diane Izzo, who does justice to Ralph Stanley's nearly impossible-to-cover "Oh Death." Then there's the creepy (Janet Bean of Freakwater skipping through the Mel Tillis tune "The Snakes Crawl at Night"), the unexpected (Jenny Toomey's take on Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets"), the oddly nonchalant (Rosie Flores doing the Hank Williams standard "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive"), and the downright weird (the little-heard Chris Ligon's "Great State of Texas"). --Anders Smith Lindall
Product Description
This album has songs by the Louvin Brothers, Hank Williams, Charley Pride, Johnny Paycheck, Cole Porter, Merle Haggard, Stanley Brothers, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, that lost country juggernaut The Adverts, and more. Helping PVC out with the vocals are, as usual, a dazzling array of guest stars. Let’s see who we have here: Steve Earle, Brett Sparks of the Handsome Family, the Rockabilly Filly Rosie Flores, Deano from the Wacos, Janet Bean of Freakwater, Lonesome Bob, Neko Case, Johnny Dowd, Edith Frost, Diane Izzo, Rick Sherry of Devil in a Woodpile, Sally Timms, Paul Burch, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
An excellent collection of songs sure to please any fan of traditional country music. Stand outs from this CD include the chilling "Gary Gilmore's Eyes", "The Hangman's Song" and "Oh Death". The proceeds from the purchase of this cd benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Morturium. Every song on here is an absolute gem and a delight to country fans with a bent sense of humor and a sense of justice about the inhumanity of the death penalty. The linear notes for this CD promise a volume 2, and I can't wait to purchase it!
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
An outstanding collection -- every bit as great as their Bob Wills tribute CD. Each song is good, but Chris Ligon's "The Great State of Texas" is worth the price of the disc alone.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Jon Langford's latest outing with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, The Executioner's Last Songs, had large, large shoes to fill. Indeed, the previous releases by the band, '94's Misery Loves Company and '98's ...Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills were two of the finest records released by the top-notch insurgent country label, Bloodshot Records. Where Misery Loves Company was a basic, albeit very accomplished, band affair, ...Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills had the Cosmonauts serving as the house band for some of the genre's brightest stars and though serving double-duty as a tribute record and sampler for Bloodshot's artists, it still succeeded to the point of being one of the finest releases ever from the label and of 1998, for that matter.
Why, then, is The Executioner's Last Songs so disappointingly blah? It serves again as a fine sampler of talent, Bloodshot and otherwise, with artists such as Steve Earle, Neko Case, Edith Frost, Johnny Dowd, and, of course, Jon Langford and Company represented in top form and it presents some wonderful interpretations of songs of murder, mob-law & cruel, cruel punishment, highlights including Rosie Flores on "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive," Janet Bean on "The Snakes Crawl at Night," Edith Frost on "Sing Me Back Home" and Diane Izzo's great cover of the otherwise uncoverable Ralph Stanley classic, "Oh Death." Still, despite the vast array of great songs performed by incredible artists, The Executioner's Last Songs still comes across as a disjointed hodge podge. The difference, then, seems to lie in the glue that holds the songs together (or doesn't, in this case). On Misery Loves Company and ...Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills, the Cosmonauts were working with songs from single sources (Misery... covering the songs of Johnny Cash). Even Beneath the Country Underdog, on which the band backed Kelly Hogan, was a greater success, again due to the singular source material.
The Executioner's Last Songs, while in theory an incredible thematic idea, just comes across as disjointed due to the widely differing styles demanded by the variety of songs and vocalists. The record, then, is all over the place and while none of the directions it takes are particularly bad, it certainly doesn't make for a very satisfying listen, especially compared with the admittedly incomparable track record set by this band. Subtitled Vol. 1, though, we can probably expect Vol. 2 to follow sometime soon. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's going to take something like a Lefty Frizzell tribute to get this listener excited about the Pine Valley Cosmonauts again.
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