Songs That Kill: Top Country Murder Ballads (2024)

• Lefty Frizzell, “The Long Black Veil”

  Like HARDY’s protagonist, there’s a sense of honor in the death here. Singing from his grave, the protagonist tells of being executed for a murder he didn’t commit, because his alibi would have revealed he was having an affair with his best friend’s wife. He dies rather than shame his lover. Though she didn’t shed a tear as he was hanged for the crime he didn’t commit, Frizzell sings that every night “she walks these hills in a long black veil/ she visits my grave when the night winds wail.”

  Frizzell took the song, which both Johnny Cash and Sammi Smith later covered, to No. 6 on Billboard‘s Country Songs chart in 1959, and it remains one of country music’s most enduring, tragic classics. Written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin, the song was entered into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2018 for its cultural relevance. — MELINDA NEWMAN

  Listen to “The Long Black Veil.”

• Eric Church, “Lightning”

  A convicted murderer sits in an electric chair, waiting out his final moments before paying the price for robbing a liquor store and fatally shooting the store’s attendant. A solo write from Church, and included on his 2006 Sinners Like Me album, the song was never officially released to country radio, but the unvarnished video elevates the stories of both victim and perpetrator, as well as the impact on their families. Ultimately, the song’s lyrics slowly unveil the murder’s remorse, as well as the primary reason he did what he did: a hungry infant at home. — JESSICA NICHOLSON

  Listen to “Lightning.”

• “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"

  Though she was best known as a comedienne on The Carol Burnett Show, Vicki Lawrence showed she could deliver a chilling murder ballad with the best of them with this Southern Gothic tale (written by her then husband Bobby Russell) that went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. In the twisted tale, a woman murders her beloved brother’s wife as well as the man she cheated with, but her brother ends up hanging for the man’s murder. The wife is never found, but Lawrence and Reba McEntire — who took the song to No. 12 on Hot Country Songs nearly 20 years later — remind us: “Little sister don’t miss when she aims her gun.” — M.N.

  Listen to “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”

• Willie Nelson, “Red Headed Stranger”

  The title track of Nelson’s critically acclaimed 1975 album, this song unfurls a story of deception and murder thanks to the “Stranger,” who rides his black stallion from town to town, while leading a bay horse that belonged to his deceased wife. As he rides through the main streets of one town, a “yellow-haired” lady becomes covetous of the bay horse, with deadly consequences. “Red Headed Stranger” was written by Carl Stutz and Edith Lindeman. — J.N.

  Listen to “Red Headed Stranger.”

• The Chicks, “Goodbye Earl"

  This Dennis Linde-penned song caused quite a stir when The Chicks (then the Dixie Chicks) released it as an official single in 2000, with some stations refusing to play the story of two lifelong friends who don’t think twice about murdering one of their husbands after he lands his wife in intensive care. After they poison Earl, the pair shows no remorse and nothing but glee (even the deliciously decomposing Earl, played by Dennis Franz in the video, seemingly delights in his demise as his detractors dance in the street to celebrate his demise). The cops tacitly sign off on Earl’s departure, since, as Natalie Maines cheerily sings, “It turns out he was a missing person who nobody missed at all.” — M.N.

  Listen to “Goodbye Earl.”

• Miranda Lambert, “Gunpowder and Lead”

  Another take on a domestic violence situation also finds a woman taking matters into her own hands. In this track penned by Lambert and Heather Little, the protagonist waits for her significant other to return home after getting out of prison, with a cigarette in one hand and a loaded pistol in the other. “His fist is big, but my gun’s bigger,” Lambert murmurs in the song’s bridge, her voice deadly calm. The song, included on Lambert’s album Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, earned the singer-songwriter her first top 10 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. — J.N.

  Listen to “Gunpowder and Lead.”

• Ashley McBryde, “Martha Devine”

  Murder ballads come in all shapes and sizes, and here, the vigilante is a daughter who is settling the score in this rat-a-tat, percussive stomp about a “jezebel… bound for hell” from McBryde’s fine 2020 album Never Will. Sure, it’s a little creepy that the protagonist is so attached to Daddy Dearest that she murders his mistress, but the toe-tapper is too much fun to give in to the cringe, especially when there are great lines like “I’ve got this feeling and I got this shovel” — with an opening lyric like that, you just know nothing good is coming — and “It ain’t murder if I bury you alive.” — M.N.

  Listen to “Martha Devine.”

• “Knoxville Girl”

  This folk ballad of murder without remorse has had a long, evolving history, deriving from the Irish ballad “The Wexford Girl.” However, it was two different sibling duos — the Louvin Brothers and the Wilburn Brothers — who each reached the top 20 on Billboard’s country charts in 1959 with their renditions of the song (though the Louvin Brothers’ version was previously included on their 1956 album Tragic Songs of Life). In this sordid tale of domestic violence, what begins with a young couple taking a walk ends in a grisly murder, with the young man ultimately paying for his crime with a lifetime spent in jail. — J.N.

  Listen to “Knoxville Girl.”

• Garth Brooks, "The Thunder Rolls"

  In 1990, Brooks got banned from CMT with the video for “The Thunder Rolls,” a grim ballad about a wife who ends her spouse’s cheating and abusive ways by killing him after another night of carousing. However, the murder only happens in the video version of the song. For the version Brooks co-wrote and recorded for his 1990 album No Fences(and the version that went to No. 1 at radio), the song ends with the wife wondering where her husband is on this dark and stormy night. But Brooks began performing the last verse in concert and added it to the video. With its instantly recognizable crackling thunder opening, the song remains a crowd favorite.

  Brooks returned to murder ballads with the darkly comedic “Papa Loved Mama” on his next album, 1992’s Ropin’ the Wind. An irate truck-driving protagonist slams his rig into the local motel where his wife and her lover were, until that moment, enjoying a tryst. “He never hit the brakes when he was shifting gears,” Brooks sings in the uptempo track and, now, “Mama’s in the graveyard/ Papa’s in the pen.” Between the spritely melody and sing-along harmonies, murder never sounded so jubilant. — M.N.

  Listen to “The Thunder Rolls” and “Papa Loved Mama.”

• Carrie Underwood, “Two Black Cadillacs”

  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Double that fury with Underwood’s 2012 hit about a wife and her husband’s mistress who come together to end his cheating days. As they throw dirt on his grave, Underwood sings, “He’s not the only one with a secret to hide.” Like the video for “The Thunder Rolls,” the clip for “Two Black Cadillacs” expands on the song, turning it into a Stephen King-like short story — complete with a murderous, self-rejuvenating black Cadillac, seemingly with a life of its own. — M.N.

  Listen to “Two Black Cadillacs.”

• Martina McBride, “Independence Day”

  Songwriter Gretchen Peters penned this breakthrough ballad about domestic abuse and revenge, powered by McBride’s thousand-watt voice. Written from the perspective of an 8-year-old girl scarred by years of bearing witness to her father’s abuse of her mother, the girl heads downtown to a local fair, only to return home to find that her mother has burned down the family home, presumably with both mother and father inside while the flames raged.

  “I ain’t sayin’ it’s right or it’s wrong, but maybe it’s the only way/ Talk about your revolution, it’s Independence Day,” McBride sings with bruising resolution, leading into the chorus. The song reached No. 12 on Billboard’s Country Songs chart in 1994 — though in concert, fans have for years reacted as though the song were a No. 1 hit. — J.N.

  Listen to “Independence Day.”

• The SteelDrivers, “If It Hadn’t Been For Love”

  Before Chris Stapleton saw his artist career blaze from relative unknown to superstar seemingly overnight, following his 2015 CMA Awards performance alongside Justin Timberlake, he was primarily a songwriter — penning hits for the likes of Josh Turner and Kenny Chesney — in addition to being the growling, bluesy lead singer for bluegrass band The SteelDrivers. Stapleton scribed this song with then-SteelDrivers bandmate Mike Henderson, and the track details all the things “love” supposedly made him do — including loading a .44, killing a woman and landing himself behind bars. The song is included on the band’s 2008 eponymous debut album. — J.N.

  Listen to “If It Hadn’t Been for Love.”

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