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Your Favorite Traditional Ballad

I could only find a thread with "Power Ballads". I find myself drawn to more traditional ballads lately. Here are a few of my favorites:

1952 Vincent Black Lightening, Richard Thompson
The Ballad of the Runaway Horse, Emmylou Harris
Pretty much any of the traditionals as sung by Kate Rusby
Ballad of Copper Junction (a Journeyman's Lament), Jeffrey Foucault
Folklore (the entire album is outstanding...my favorite would have to be "The Outlaw Song"), 16 Horsepower

I respect how, with such an economy of words, a songwriter can engrave such deep and powerful stories that resonate and linger.

What are some of your favorites in traditional ballads?
jax2
don_s
271 posts
 
Setting aside the argument of traditional vs modern, one of my favorites is:

Joni Mitchell "Urge for Going"

Tom Rush does an excellent cover of Urge for Going on the CD
No Regrets: The Very Best of Tom Rush

That CD also includes two other great "story songs"

"Joshua Gone Barbados"

"Galveston Flood"
cruz123
586 posts
 
It's not a good ballad unless someone gets killed, preferably by a jilted lover. Such as, Banks of the Ohio, Down in the Willow Garden, Rain and Snow, Knoxville Girl, Ballad of Omie Wise, etc.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
Just a few more:

Waltzing's For Dreamers, From Galway to Graceland, and Walking on a Wire - AKA: The as yet un-nominated Richard Thompson trifecta
Hello, It's Me - Todd Rundgren
She Was The One - The dbs (Pete Holtzapple)
Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Neil Yolung

I'll also second TVZ on Pancho & Lefty and add Sittin 'Round Waitin' to Die
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Here's another good ballad
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,317 posts
 
Ballad of easy rider
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