The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 2 & 3 Jonboy Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts

The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 2 & 3

Disc 1
1	Gallows Pole / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 5:00
2	Louis Collins / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 3:31
3	The Fall of Troy / Kurt Wagner 3:40
4	Banks of the Ohio / Otis Clay 5:02
5	Homicide / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 3:17
6	Green, Green Grass of Home / Kelly Hogan 3:16
7	Death Row / Rico Bell 2:55
8	Gulag Blues / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 2:12
9	Horses / Chris Mills 2:59
10	Strange Fruit / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 2:04
11	One Dyin' & A Buryin' / David Yow Live 2:41
12	Delilah / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 3:26
13	Willie O'Winsbury / Charlotte Greig 5:12
Disc 2
1	Bad News / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 2:23
2	The Ballad of Billy Joe / Rebecca Gates 2:43
3	Dang Me / Rhett Miller 1:51
4	Forever to Burn / Rex Hobart 2:31
5	Death Where Is Thy Sting / Pat Brennan 4:33
6	Long Black Veil / The Pine Valley Cosmonauts 2:57
7	God's Eternal Love / Mark Eitzel 4:07
8	Hangin' Me Tonight / Gurf Morlix 3:39
9	John Hardy / The Meat Purveyors 2:40
10	Pardon This Coffin / Jon Rauhouse 2:29
11	Saviour / Kevin Coyne 6:03
12	Green, Green Grass of Home / Dave Alvin 3:44
13	Angel of Death / Tom Greenhalgh 2:37
14	Tom Dooley / The Sundowners Live 2:46

All Music Guide

Jon Langford and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts' second collection of songs about murder, death, and dying -- recorded to benefit the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty -- certainly ups the ante of ambition and diversity over The Executioner's Last Songs, and while Vol. 2 & 3 lacks some of the purity and concision of the first disc, the consistent quality of the performances certainly compensates. Where for the most part The Executioner's Last Songs sounded like the work of a single band with a number of different singers taking their turns at the mike, on the follow-up Langford, Steven Goulding, Tom Ray, Celine, and the various guest Cosmonauts on deck bend more to the style of their guests, which given the artists on board was perhaps inevitable. Mark Eitzel, Kevin Coyne, Kurt Wagner, and David Yow, to name but four of the artists teaming up with the PVC here, are simply the sort of performers who can't help but sound like themselves, and with more original songs and contemporary compositions on display, this two-CD set suggests less of a ramble through the morbid tributaries of Anglo-American traditional music than some sort of death-obsessed folk and pop festival, where the Grim Reaper is met with good cheer (Rhett Miller's "Dang Me"), snide wit (Pat Brennan's "Death Where Is Thy Sting"), fatalistic nostalgia (Dave Alvin's "Green Green Grass of Home"), or resigned regret (Otis Clay's "Banks of the Ohio"). All 27 tracks are worth hearing, and regardless of your stand on the death penalty, The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 2 & 3 boasts far too much good music from too many worthy artists for anyone with even a passing interest in roots music to pass up. Mark Deming

Blender

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts' continuing effort to raise funds, consciousness and hell results in startlingly good music... A capital achievement. Jason Cohen