When a trailer for the game The Last of Us Part 2 was released in 2018, the music in this trailer seemed very familiar to me. It turned out to be the song Little Sadie by the band Crooked Still. The songs Ain’t no grave and Ecstasy, both by Crooked Still, are also in the video game.
Went out one night to make a little round
I met Little Sadie and I shot her down
Went back home, jumped into bed
.44 pistol under my head
I woke up in the morning about half-past-nine
The hacks and the buggies standing in line
Gents and gamblers standing around
Taking Little Sadie to her burying ground
I began to think of what a deed I'd done
I grabbed my hat and away I did run
Made a good run, just a little too slow
They overtook me in Jericho
Standing on the corner a reading a bill
And up stepped the sheriff from Thomasville
He said, "Miss, is your name Brown?
Remember the night you shot Sadie down?"
I said, "Oh yes sir, but my name is Lee
And I murdered Little Sadie in the first degree
First degree and second degree
Got any papers, will you read 'em to me?"
So they took me downtown and dressed me in black
Put me on a train and started me back
All the way back to the Thomasville jail
Had no money for to go my bail
The judge and the jury they took their stand
The judge had the papers in his right hand
41 days, 41 nights
41 years to wear the ball and stripes
Went out one night to make a little round
I met Little Sadie and I shot her down
Went back home, jumped into bed
.44 pistol under my head
Crooked Still is an American bluegrass band that was founded in 2001 in Boston by a group of students at the conservatory there. Bluegrass is a music genre that combines elements of folk and country music. Characteristic of this genre is the use of string instruments, such as the banjo and mandolin. Like many bluegrass artists of the twenty-first century, Crooked Still makes smooth music and uses a combination of modern and traditional sounds.
The band consists of five members: Aoife O’Donovan (vocals, guitar), Corey DiMario (bass), Brittany Haas (violin), Tristan Clarridge (cello), and Gregory Liszt (banjo). The band released five studio albums between 2004 and 2011. In 2011, the five-piece split to pursue solo careers and other collaborations. They reunited in 2017 to perform at a major bluegrass festival. Although they no longer release new music, they still reunite for festivals and concerts.
I am a big fan of bluegrass music and before I got to know Crooked Still, I knew lead singer Aoife O’Donovan mainly from her solo work and from the band I’m With Her. When the second season of The Last of Us approached, I was very curious whether the music of Crooked Still would also be used in the series. I was pleasantly surprised, because not only did the music appear, the band itself was also seen in the first episode of season two.
In the scene where the community of Jackson, Wyoming celebrates New Year's Eve, the fictional band Brittany and the Jug Boys performs. This band consists of the members of Crooked Still and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who composed the soundtracks for both the series and both games. In this scene, the band plays the songs Little Sadie and Ecstasy, just like they do in the video game.
Both songs are from their second album Shaken by a Low Sound from 2006. While Ecstasy is an original song that the band wrote themselves, Little Sadie has a special history. It is a murder ballad that first surfaced somewhere in the early twentieth century. It tells the story of a man named Lee who is arrested and tried for shooting a woman named Sadie.
The first written version of the song surfaced in 1922 under the name Bad Lee Brown. There are many variations of the song, under different titles. Over the years, artists such as Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Doc Watson have covered different versions of the song. The oldest known version of Little Sadie as performed by Crooked Still dates from 1929 and comes from Clarence Ashley.