The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Wild Bill Jones
Sing the Songs They Like Best (1961) Bluegrass Discography
“Wild Bill Jones” is a traditional Anglo-American outlaw-and-murder ballad of the older mountain repertoire. The lyric narrates a confrontation between the narrator and Wild Bill Jones, ending with the narrator shooting Bill down over a woman; the song belongs to the broader Western-and-mountain murder-ballad family that includes “Banks of the Ohio,” “Little Sadie,” and “Knoxville Girl.”
The song’s earliest commercial recordings are from the 1920s old-time-music era; subsequent recordings by the Carter Family, the Country Gentlemen, and a long list of bluegrass acts have kept the song in active circulation. The historical Wild Bill Jones — if he existed at all — is murky enough that no firm identification has been made; the song probably draws on multiple frontier-era folk-history sources.
The recording associated with this entry is Alison Krauss and Union Station’s 1989 reading. Krauss was still in her teens at the time of recording; the album marked her early emergence as a major force in bluegrass. Her lead vocal, paired with Union Station’s tight contemporary-traditional arrangement, brought the song to a younger bluegrass audience. It works as a moderate-tempo vocal feature in G or A with a clear chorus harmony slot.
