In 1866, Laura Foster was murdered. Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged May 1, 1868. Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.

Dula had a lover, prior to his leaving for the war, named Anne Melton, a cousin of Foster. Her comments led to the discovery of Foster's body, but Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on Dula's word. Dula's enigmatic statement on the gallows that he had not harmed Foster but still deserved his punishment led to press speculation that Melton was the actual killer and that Dula simply covered for her. Melton, who had once expressed jealousy of Dula's purported plans to marry Foster, died insane a few years after the homicide. Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. A local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy after the hanging.

A man named "Grayson," mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was involved in returning him to North Carolina, but otherwise played no role in the case.

Dula was tried in Statesville, because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted, and hanged on May 1, 1868. His alleged accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."

Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry". The confusion was compounded by the fact that Dr. Tom Dooley, an American physician known for international humanitarian work, was at the height of his fame in 1958, when the Kingston Trio version became a major hit.

The doleful ballad was first sung shortly after the execution and is still commonly sung in North Carolina.


"Tom Dooley" 1955  warped recording

One at a Time

your exhibition at the Berkeley art museum was life changing

words from: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jC8cYMRbrU

photo: "Cecilia Vicuña, Allqa (Union of Black & White), 1997, performance, Barnard College, New York. Lehmann Maupin"

to cecilia vicuna

Bite Down

Hills on Fire

Jolly Boys "Ring of fire" Great expectations
/
Toots "Love & happiness" Toots in Memphis
Al Green "Tired of being alone" 
Lightnin Hopkins "Sittin here thinkin" Dirty house blues
James Booker "A Taste of honey/Goodnight Irene" unreleased live at Tipitina's 1977
/
Angel Canales "Mi niña bonita" El San Juan
Kako's New York After Hours Orchestra "Mi guajira" Tributo a Noro Morales
Dan people (Cote d'Ivoire) "Glukoeglo" Masques Dan
Kolonel Djafaar "Phil's first tear" Getaway
Dexter Gordon "Cry me a river" Dexter blows hot and cool	
/
Papa Wemba & Clan Langa Langa "Ofukutano" Evenement

10 Out Of 10

By Erik Larson and Christian Asplund
23 April 2024
The Avant GaRAWge, Provo

Floating Needles

Stanley & Starlites "Brown gal" Leave mi kisiloo
Wailing Souls "Jah Jah give us life to live" At Channel One
Johnny Osbourne "Time a run out" Studio One 12"
African Head Charge "Far away chant" My life in a hole in the ground
Massive Attack "Man next door" Mezzanine

Albino Kalombo  & Beguen Band "Kamungule" Ngoma: the soul of Congo
orch Afro-Negro "Palado palado" Les Belgicains
OK Jazz "Pantchika es mi cancion" Loningisa #249
Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper "Daraka" Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper

Kiki Valera "Vivencias" Vivencias en clave Cubana
Eddie Palmieri "Azucar" Sugar daddy
Monk "Reflections" Thelonious alone in SF 

Cover art: Antonio Meza

Reflections

Yang terdalam - cover

Cecilia Vicuña (b. 1947) is a Chilean poet, artist, filmmaker and political activist whose work "dwells in the not yet, the future potential of the unformed, where sound, weaving, and language interact to create new meanings". She joined me on Parallel Lines on Wed 28 Sep 2016 for an interview with artistic directors of @liquid_architecture Joel Stern and Danni Zuvela as well as the Melbourne-based Chilean artist Camila Marambio, ahead of Liquid Architecture's 'Why Listen To Animals' project running from 29 Sep – 22 Oct 2016. Here, she reads her poem 'Word & Thread'.
http://www.ceciliavicuna.com/
http://www.liquidarchitecture.org.au/program/why-listen-to-animals/
http://www.rrr.org.au/program/parallel-lines/

Cecilia Vicuña reads 'Word & Thread' on Parallel Lines 28.09.16

Bavarian Fruit Bread

hope sandoval and the warm inventions - suzanne

An audio archive of historical and contemporary poetry, brilliantly curated by the poet Charles Bernstein in response to our 2016 exhibition Down To Write You This Poem Sat. 

The poems are from the archive PennSound at the University of Pennsylvania. We are incredibly grateful to Charles!

Find somewhere comfortable to sit, relax, and enjoy....

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, March 28, 2009

Cecilia Vicuna, "When This Language Disappeared" (2009)

EARPHEMERA PODCAST: performative artifacts with emblematic soundscapes. Supporting the podcast one wheelchair trip at a time.

"Tom Dooley" 1955 warped recording

ETC-TET

Related tracks