From the Kansas City Star:

One of the year's best country albums celebrates one of country music's longest and darkest traditions: the murder ballad. The album also is tied to one of the most potent political issues in the country -- capital punishment -- so you know it wasn't made in Nashville by commercial country stars. In fact, the album was made by a small label in Chicago and produced by a Welshman, and neither is the least bit worried about a backlash.

"It's all really a cheap one-liner," said Jon Langford, who produced "The Executioner's Last Songs: Vol. 2 and 3" for Bloodshot Records. "You know, death songs against death." A native of Wales and now a resident of Chicago, he began publicly associating himself with the anti-capital punishment issue last year, when Bloodshot released Vol. 1 of "The Executioner's Song," which raised $40,000 for the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project.

In the liner notes to that album, Langford wrote blithely: "Here's a little historical trawling and purging to aid and support the long, civilizing march against the death penalty in this earth's richest land."

....He succeeded in making a great album. Robert Moore has played several "Executioner's" songs on his weekly "Sonic Spectrum" show, broadcast from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays on KCUR-FM (89.3).

"It's easily one of the best country albums of the year," Moore said. "It revives a lot of great tunes, and not just the traditional country murder ballads but also some songs like `Gallows Pole,' a ballad that Led Zeppelin covered (on `Led Zeppelin III')."