Labor and Love: A Garland of American Folk Ballads

There is a group of compelling, bewitching folk songs that are part of American's cultural DNA: murder ballads, work songs, sea shanties. Though many of them originated in the British Isles, immigrants brought them here and filtered them through American experiences, making them part of the foundation of American music. And they are weird. From songs narrated by a bird witnessing murder to a song about a fiddle made of flesh and bone playing the song of its creation, they explore—as Greil Marcus dubbed it—the old, weird America. The songs may seem initially clear, but they’re also impossible to completely understand. Listening to them, it often feels that there’s an entire world of meaning beneath the lyrics that you know is there but have no hope of accessing. It's that sense of mystery and wonder that is present in each story in Labor and Love. Besides the comics, each story includes a common or canonical version of the lyrics, recording information, and notes about the song or the comic's creation.