From there, it jumps into “As Long as There Is Whiskey in the World,” which, as could be gleaned from the title, is a love letter to liquor as a cure-all for life’s problems. The first track, a 34-second old timey ditty that came to Balliet while she was cleaning her bathtub, takes a sly jab at Jack Daniel’s with the line “You can choose your drinkin’ partner, and mine ain’t from Tennessee / Yes it’s straight Kentucky bourbon for me.” Sorry, Chris Stapleton. Murder By Death’s 2010 album, Good Morning, Magpie, kicked off with a one-two punch about whiskey. In fact, fans often gift the band their own bottles of homemade moonshine. The band is now based in Kentucky, where Turla and Balliet own an Italian restaurant that boasts a robust drinks menu, and they take pride in their regional bourbon. Whiskey has long been an integral part of Murder By Death fandom, so much so that their shows sometimes seem like drinking clubs that happen to feature live music. But for those looking to finally try out this band whose name might have been misleading, here are a few places to start. It’s hard to even pull individual songs out of their albums since each track is a piece of larger, carefully arranged story told across the span of the record. And since they’ve never had a hit record or been critical darlings, it’s daunting to find an entry point in their dense catalog. But they’ve got a cult-like following that’s kept them going. In their nearly two decades together, Murder By Death has never had much breakout success and has largely flown under the radar of music press. They’re raising funds for its release on Kickstarter, where they’ve been wildly successful in launching their last two albums, due largely to their oddball rewards, which have included private performances, riding rollercoasters with backers at theme parks, and recording songs of backers’ choosings for a covers album. They recently announced that they’re nearing completion on their eighth album, The Other Shore, which, as they describe it, is a Western space opera, which is fitting for a band that’s written concept records about the Devil waging war on Mexican villages or the themes of sin in Dante’s Inferno. Led by the husband and wife team of Adam Turla on vocals/guitar and Sarah Balliet on cello, Murder By Death has amassed a substantial catalog since forming in 2000 in Bloomington, Indiana.
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