Hanging Tree, released in 2016, is a project from Blue Mafia, a group whose name signals an irreverence toward the professional bluegrass world's more earnest self-presentation. Operating in the tradition of bands that bring a harder edge to acoustic string-band music, Blue Mafia uses the title's dark imagery to announce an orientation toward the harder edges of the American folk tradition. The hanging tree is a recurring image in Southern song, weighted with the full complexity of that history, and a group willing to put it on an album cover is making a statement about the kind of material they intend to engage.
Tracklist
- 1 Like A Mining Man 3:46
- 2 Hanging Tree 3:36
- 3 Sweet Mary of the Mountains 3:43
- 4 The Man You Know 3:43
- 5 With Body and Soul alt version 3:50
- 6 Baby You're Gone 3:21
- 7 Midnight Rain 3:35
- 8 Loneliness and Desperation alt version 3:04
- 9 Say Won’t You Be Mine alt version 4:28
- 10 You Belong With Me 3:33
- 11 Life 3:19
- 12 Who Are You 4:14