From Rolling Stone:
Death Songs Vs. Death Penalty
Langford, Earle, Case fight capital punishment with murder ballads
The Pine Valley Cosmonauts, who consist of Jon Langford and Steve Goulding of the Mekons/Waco Brothers and former Bottle Rocket Tom Ray, will release their third album, The Executioner’s Last Songs, on March 19th on Bloodshot Records. As with their previous tributes to Bob Wills and Johnny Cash, the Cosmonauts have enlisted a rotating roster of guest vocalists, and this time out the material is a collection of songs of murder, execution and mob justice. And it’s delivered with a wink, as partial proceeds will benefit Artists Against the Death Penalty and the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
“I’m just really horrified by it,” the Welsh-born Chicago native Langford says of the death penalty. “There was a big movement up here in Illinois, and it’s one of the first states to issue a moratorium. The inequities of the system were so glaring. I have a son, a four-year-old boy, and finally felt I should exercise my voice in American politics as much as I can. Previously, people have said to me, ‘You’re not from here. You should shut your mouth.’ I just feel like it’s quite compelling for me, because it’s not something that exists in Europe.”Continue reading→