People take warning

Tom Waits has written an introduction to People take warning! - Murder ballads & songs of disaster 1913-1938, a 3-cd box set to be released September 25, 2007 on Tompkins Square.

In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, the Depression gripped the Nation. It was a time when songs were tools for living. A whole community would turn out to mourn the loss of a member and to sow their songs like seeds. This collection is a wild garden grown from those seeds.

(Tom Waits, from the introduction)