Mappamundi: songs of supernatural (and other) disaster
This set was originally done as a duo for the anniversary of Hurricane Fran (which dumped eight trees on Jane's roof, crushing it completely). It was later augmented and expanded to a program for everyone to enjoy! A natural for Halloween programs.
- No Es Serio Este Cementerio
- By Mecano, a Spanish rock group, about the cheerful perambulations of the ghosts in the cemetery. The niches are better than the mausoleums because they are cheaper and don't have as many insects.
- Reynardine
- A girl wandering in the mountains is spirited away by a were-fox.
- King Henry
- A king who goes out hunting encounters a huge drooling ghost and breaks its spell.
- Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst
- "Some drink champagne, some die of thirst... the world's a stage, we're unrehearsed... Some reach the top, friends, while others flop, friends..." Mel Brooks' words of wisdom and a perfect theme song
- Strange Things Happen in this World (Laurie)
- An ultra-bizarre song from the 50s by Dickie Lee about a really cute girl who borrows a sweater and then disappears - the sweater is later found in a cemetery. Hmmm.
- Teen Angel
- An obvious one. Why did she go back for that stupid high-school ring - didn't she hear the train coming?
- William Glenn
- An English song about the near-annihilation of a sailing ship due to the previously undisclosed dastardly deeds of the captain.
- Death & the Maiden
- If you ever meet up with an old bald guy in the road, and his clothing is made of "the cold earth and clay," you're in trouble.
- Chorni Voron (Black Raven)
- A Russian song about a dying soldier sending a message back to his love.
- The Cloudburst
- About a hurricane in 1916 which caused terrible mudslides in the North Carolina mountains - from the singing of a woman in Ebenezer North Carolina (long since swallowed - Ebenezer, I mean, not the woman - by Raleigh)
- The White Cockade
- Her fiance is "pressed" into the army and she curses the man who took him: "Oh may he never prosper and may he never thrive in anything he turns his hand, as long as he's alive; may the very ground he treads on the grass refuse to grow..."
- Charlie and the MTA
- An updated, 12-tone version of the Kingston Trio classic.
- Lid fun Titanik
- A Yiddish song describing the destruction of the great ship.
- Oh Death
- "What is this that I can see, these icy fingers taking hold of me?"
- That Was an Awful Night
- A ballad Jane wrote about the Hurricane that crushed her roof.
- Caballera Negra
- By the Mexican composer Agustin Lara: "Magnificent black stone, enchanted labyrinth, I have told the secret of my soul to the shadow, my sadness and pain."
- Dervisaki
- A Greek widow tries to get her boyfriend to stop gambling and smoking the black hashish, and he promises to reform.
- Kelesh Doncho
- A Macedonian farmer is caught by the Turks with bombs hidden under the rye in his wagon. He's thrown in jail but betrays nobody.