Singled Out: The Curse Of K.K. Hammond's The Ballad of Lampshade Ed

Keavin Wiggins | 11-04-2022

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Slide guitarist and singer-songwriter K.K. Hammond tells us about the song "The Ballad of Lampshade Ed", which comes ahead of the debut The Curse Of K.K. Hammond album, "Death Roll Blues", that will arrive next spring. Here is the story:

The Ballad of Lampshade Ed is a folk blues song with a high energy vibe which I worked on in collaboration with fellow blues musician and friend "David & the Devil."

It borrows its theme from the old murder ballads of the past and shines a spotlight on the childhood of Ed Gein, AKA The Butcher of Plainfield who went on to become an infamous American murderer and body snatcher. In writing this, I sought to investigate what elements in his childhood drove him to eventually become the monster that he did. I researched the available historical material in order to sprinkle plenty of authentic content into my account of his tale.

In the lyrics, I wove in elements of his complicated and abusive relationship with his mother. The chorus hones in on the very moment that his mind snapped from that of an innocent child into that of someone who found pleasure in the grotesque. In life this was undoubtedly a long, cumulative and complicated process but, for the purpose of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the song, we captured that very moment in the chorus with the lyrics: "And Ed Sang....Hell yeah!" to represent Gein thinking to himself, "you know what, I dig being a monster, I'm just going to go with it!" Essentially this is a deeply dark coming of age ballad.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here