murder ballads

Murder ballads have been around since people have been telling stories. Whether it’s H.C. Artmann’s dialect poems, Bertolt Brecht’s The Ballad of Mack the Knife or Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads, they all revolve around crime. Juliane Liebert brings this genre into the present day and writes about a female bank robber in men’s clothes who is killed in a stand-off with the police. About victims of political persecution. About pen friendships with death row prisoners. About the time of »the true murderess«. She asks »how my mother might be doing / down in the ground / is she drinking? Is she listening in? Is she cold?» and »are you afraid? I say no. I didn’t want to be«.

Liebert tells of murder and manslaughter, of our fears and dreams – reflecting all the madness of the world. »song: kill eat shop«.