Pine Valley Cosmonauts

The Executioner’s Last Songs is a collection of tracks featuring collaborations between the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and a variety of singers. Each song carefully details one of the many ways one person may aid another in coming to an untimely end. The concept started in 2002 when the first volume was released to help raise money for the struggle against the death penalty. On volumes two and three the tracks vary greatly in style, but stay constant in the fact that they’re all really fuckin’ good. From Kurt Wagner’s cover of Tom Waits’ "The Fall of Troy” to the Sundowners’ version of "Tom Dooley,” the unifying and most impressive element of the album is the Pine Valley Cosmonauts’ ability to adapt and add to each track as a backing band. This is a key point in the fact that the collection has a level of quality that is seldom reached on discs with such a variety of contributors. So, while we all probably could have gone without another version of "Long Black Veil” or "Green, Green Grass of Home,” this disc is essential listening for fans of bluegrass, country, alternative or just death.