I love playlists. They help provide a soundtrack to whatever event, mood, or day is on the menu.
To that end, I’ve put together a couple of playlists for your autumn holiday entertainment. If you have the Spotify app on your phone, tablet, or computer, you can find the playlists there. If you don’t use Spotify, don’t worry—you can find these songs on a number of different services—maybe even in your own record collection.
Halloween
Murder ballads, dark and stormy weather, ghosts, graves, and moon-filled nights are some of the themes of the Halloween songs listed here. And, for those of us who tire of women getting the worst of it in so many murder ballads, I’ve thrown in a few in which women get to take a whack at it (pun intended), for example, Abigail Washburn singing “Shotgun Blues” or Wanda Jackson’s “The Box It Came In.” I will admit, I’ve thrown a couple country songs in among the bluegrass – they were too appropriate not to include.
Here are my song choices:
A Dark Starless Night, The Dixie Travelers
Ain’t No Grave, Crooked Still
Banks of the Ohio, Tony Rice
Big Midnight Special, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
Black Jack David, The Carter Family
Blackbirds and Crows, The Nashville Bluegrass Band
Bringing Mary Home, The Country Gentlemen
Bury Me Beneath the Willow, Ricky Skaggs
Colleen Malone, Hot Rize
Dark and Stormy Weather, Jody Stecher
Death Came Creeping in My Room, The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers
Devil in Disguise, The Bluegrass Album Band
Don’t Fill A Drunkard’s Grave, Jimmy Martin
Down in the Willow Garden, Mike Marshall
Ghost in This House, Alison Krauss
Ghost Riders in the Sky, Riders in the Sky
Go Dig My Grave, Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson
Grave in the Valley, Jim & Jesse
Hollis Brown, Dudley Connell
I Saw Your Face in the Moon, Roland White
In the Pines, Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
It’s Just the Night, The Del McCoury Band
It’s Mighty Dark to Travel, Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
Knoxville Girl, Louvin Brothers
Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight, Poor Old Horse
Little Black Train, Freakwater
Lonely Tombs, The Stanley Brothers
Long Black Veil, The Seldom Scene
Moonlight Midnight, Peter Rowan
Mother’s Only Sleeping, Vern Williams
My Epitaph, Uncle Earl
Oh, Death, Ralph Stanley
Omie Wise, Doc & Merle Watson
On the Banks of the Ohio, The Monroe Brothers
Over Yonder in The Graveyard, Ola Belle Reed
Poor Ellen Smith, Molly O’Day & The Cumberland Mountain Folks
Pretty Polly, Coon Creek Girls
Put My Little Shoes Away, Ralph Stanley
River Bottom, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out
Rock Salt and Nails, J.D. Crowe & The New South
Rosewood Casket, Kathy Kallick
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, The Grassy Knoll Boys
Shackles and Chains, Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys
Shady Grove, John Reischman and the Jaybirds
Shotgun Blues, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
Sittin’ Alone in the Moonlight, The Bluegrass Album Band
Six Feet of Earth, Ola Belle Reed
Six Feet Under the Ground, Michael Cleveland
Snow White Grave, Big Country Bluegrass
The Barnyard, Rachel Brooke
The Blackest Crow, Bruce Molsky
The Box It Came In, Wanda Jackson
The Ghost of Eli Renfro, The Nashville Bluegrass Band
The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake, Tom, Brad & Alice
The Silver Ghost, Merle Haggard
Under Your Spell Again, Sawtooth Bluegrass Band
Victim to the Tomb, The Country Gentlemen
Walls of Time Ricky, Skaggs
Willie Moore, Foghorn Stringband
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving brings thoughts of home, family, eating, drinking, and being grateful for the bounty of fall. The playlist includes a lot of cabin songs, songs about pie, and more.
And again, the song choices:
A Beautiful Life, The Kentucky Colonels
Back Home Again, Special Consensus
Beautiful Home, The Plath Family
Blue Ridge Cabin Home, Flatt & Scruggs
C’mon Home, Steep Ravine
Cacklin’ Hen, Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys
California Autumn, Tony Rice
Can I Go Home with You, Caleb Klauder
Can the Circle Be Unbroken, The Carter Family
Cornbread and Butterbeans, Carolina Chocolate Drops
Don’t Drink from a Whiskey Bottle, The Earl Brothers
Drink Up and Go Home, Dave Evans
Drinker Born, Uncle Earl
Drunken Angel, Lucinda Williams
Farewell My Home, Laurie Lewis
Fish and Bird, Noam Pikelny
Going to the West, Laurie Lewis
Have a Feast Here Tonight, The New Lost City Ramblers
Hello Stranger, Hazel Dickens
Home Sweet Home, The Bluegrass Album Band
Homestead on the Farm, Norman Blake
I Am a Pilgrim, Billy Strings
I Am Thinking Tonight of the Old Folks, The Monroe Brothers
I Wonder Where You Are Tonight, John Hartford
I’ll Drink No More Wine, Junior Sisk
I’m on My Way Back to the Old Home, Gillian Welch
Let the Harvest Go to Seed, Peter Rowan
Let’s Go Huntin’, Tim O’Brien
Little Birdie, Laurie Lewis
Little Cabin Home on the Hill, Ricky Skaggs
Little Glass of Wine, Del McCoury
Little Home in Tennessee, Chris Brashear
Love of the Mountains, Larry Sparks
Love Please Come Home, Old & in The Way
Making Pies, Patty Griffin
My Old Drunk Friend, Freakwater
Old Home Place, J.D. Crowe & The New South
Over the River Charlie, Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson
Pie for Breakfast, The Brothers Comatose
Pretty Bird, Carolina Chocolate Drops
Pumpkin Pie, The California Honeydrops
Shuckin’ the Corn, Josh Graves
Southern Flavor, Bill Monroe
Sugar in the Gourd, Michael Cleveland
Sugar Maple, Noam Pikelny
Thanks a Lot, Ernest Tubb & His Texas Troubadours
That Home Far Away, The Stanley Brothers
The Drunken Hiccups, Tommy Jarrell
The Old Home Town, The Bluegrass Album Band
There Stands the Glass, Webb Pierce
Thinkin’ of Home, Laurie Lewis
Turkey in the Straw, Aubrey Haynie
Turkey Knob, The Country Gentlemen
Wandering Boy, Dehlia Low
Wayfaring Stranger, Mason Jar Music
When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall, Vern Williams
Y’all Come, Bill Monroe
If you’ve looked at the lists carefully, you’ve probably thought of song titles I haven’t included, or couldn’t track down. Feel free to copy my playlists and add and delete songs to your liking.
Be sure to come back next month around this time for part 2, winter holiday songs.
