The Kingston Trio’s 1958 hit, “Tom Dooley,” is about as infectious as ear worms get, but it doesn’t give a lot of details about the real-life murder case that inspired it. Host Bobby Waller tells this fantastically sordid tale of underage sex, adultery, syphilis, possible mercury poisoning, and love triangle that may actually have been a love quadrangle.
Most of the music in this episode of Plucked is used by permission of extremely generous friends, including:
Sinjin Fraser. Sinjin plays fiddle during the narratition about Tom Dooley’s stint in the Civil War. You can check out Sinjin’s band, One Eyed Reilly at https://oneeyedreilly.com/.
James Wilson. James plays “Crooked Road” on mandolin during the narration about Laura going missing and turning up dead.
Ken Burnett. This episode features three of Ken’s tunes: “The Island,” “Mr. Gracie’s Farm,” and “Covette Heaven.” (They’re the pieces that feature that really cool sounding bass clarinet.) You can find Ken’s musical projects at these locations:
Gordon Groft, Belevolent Overloard. Gordon’s recording of “Txoria Txori” is the very last tune in the story part of the show (before the closing theme).
JonEmery. JonEmery’s “She’s Easy to Dream About” is the opening and closing theme for Plucked. And his “Eddie Mr. Pedicab” is the music you hear after “This is the real-life story of Tom Dula.” You can find JonEmery’s music at the following locations:
Copyright-free tunes from freepd.com include “Horrific” by Kevin McLeod; “Footsteps in the Attic by Arthur Fordsworth; “Mascott’s Theme” by Komiko; “Jethro on the Run” by an anonymous donor; and “Creepy Hallow” and “Blood Eagle” by Alexander Nakarada.
The feature song for this episode was “Tom Dooley” by the Kingston Trio, released in 1958 by Capitol Records. Movie clip from “The Legend of Tom Dooley” released in 1959 by Columbia Pictures.
If you would like submit music for the show, email pluckedpodcast.com.