My Frontier Partisan heart beat a little faster at the release of the trailer for the History Channel’s miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys,” due out Memorial Day. (Not least because of the potent, dark stomp of the song that plays over it: “Bartholomew” by The Silent Comedy). Watch it here.
This is one of the great American stories — the facts being more interesting by far than the stereotype-laden folklore that has accreted around it. I read a fair bit about the feud back in college and I’m going to refresh my knowledge before I watch the movie.
Coincidentally, I just picked up Sharyn McCrumb’s new book, “The Ballad of Tom Dooley,” a novel based on the 1866 murder immortalized in the famous folk song (Doc Watson’s version is preferred to the Kingston Trio’s). All this and “Justified” — I’m on a bit of an Appalachian binge.
LynnW says
I can tell from that visual and auditory bait on “Hatfields & McCoys,” I’m gonna either love it or hate it. Can’t wait to find out.
I’m really fond of Bill Morrissey & Greg Brown’s version of Tom Dula. A Tom Russell-ish rendition, harking back to the song’s roots. Perhaps you can find a link to a listen somewhere, I just spent 15 minutes looking to no avail, sorry, really wanted to share that with you.