Murder Ballad Break Down

Banded Clovis- Tyler Childers

This may be the first and perhaps the only murder ballad I’m not breaking down verse by verse. The song has several verses and no real defined chorus; every part of it just kind of magically flows into the other parts weaving together a story of Appalachian life, addiction, and murder. Also for this song to make more sense you have to know what a banded Clovis is. I didn’t really, but Google exists and I learned that it’s a type of arrowhead, with specific striations, and they’re apparently worth quite a bit of money in some circles, so if you spend a day sifting through rocks and dirt and find one of these, you’re in luck and in for a decent payout when you find someone to by it.

Tina Nolan had a man with a good place for siftin'

He invited me diggin', so I picked up my screen

And a shovel to dig and a jar of shine

Traded me fair for a bottle of wine

His brother's Barnes Mountain wine

We trudged through the snow straight up the hillside

Took a ridge for a while, then we slowly went down

To an overhang hid from the ridgeline

We bent o'er our handles and we bit in the ground

The dark and bloody ground

Was a bitch to break ground but the wine kept us goin'

Moonshine was flowin' and keepin' us warm

'Cause you can't hold a girl with a fistful of shovel

Got to find your fire in the company of corn

Armed with shovels, sifter screens, wine, and moonshine the narrator and another man start climbing a mountain until they find a place to dig for arrowheads. There’s snow on the ground so they’re drinking to “keep warm” while they’re digging the hard ground.

We dug for a while then it all turned to ashes

Found a bunch of broke flint and a few bits of bone

Then I heard Jesse yell o'er the pile he was sifting

Shook the hills like the angels were callin' us home

Jesse, Zachary come home

It was banded as hell, it was fluted and Clovis

It was hot as the pistol I kept on my side

And I was fiending so fierce, I was broke ass and busted

I pulled out my pistol and I took Jesse's life

Clovis like that is a hard point to find

Makes pills swift to come by with a good chunk of change

Left over for burn on whatever meanness

Whatever woman is comin' my way

Darlin' come my way

I sit in this cell for the banded Clovis

I stole off of Nolan when I killed'm that day

I reckon the chase of the pills and the powder

Corn liquor and woman are the culprits to blame

The narrator digs and finds nothing of value, but the other man finds a good piece, and yells to let him know. Despite having alcohol in his system the narrator is going through withdrawals of other substances and doesn’t have the money to get any. This line specifically points that out: “And I was fiending so fierce, I was broke ass and busted” being in that condition he decides to shoot the man right then and there with his stolen gun. He then thinks he can sell the banded Clovis for drug money. The narrator ends up in jail for the murder, but blames it on his need for drugs, liquor and women. The fact that the song starts out with “Tina Nolan had a man..” I’m unclear if the narrator was into Tina and if she were one of the women he was chasing, if so it could add another layer to the motive of the murder