Long before gangsta rap reared its bloody skull, there was the murder ballad--a deadly strain of folk music in which feral behavior was chronicled with matter-of-fact directness. Throwing Muses founder Kristin Hersh grew up hearing her parents sing Appalachian songs of death and damnation and, curiously, dusts off those antique tunes now that she's a mother. The tense, spinsterish American cousin of Nick Cave's Murder Ballads concept album, Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight offers up an assortment of vaguely familiar numbers ("Pretty Polly," "I Will Never Marry," "Banks of the Ohio") that are somehow simultaneously lulling and creepy. To her credit, Hersh remains true to herself and her repertoire, essaying the likes of "Down in the Willow Garden" and "Poor Ellen Smith" with a minimum of fuss. One can almost imagine her mopping up spilled blood in the pantry before she moves on to her daily dusting. --Steven Stolder