Perhaps the most beautifully maudlin thing here is "He Stopped Loving Her Today." George Jones famously balked at recording the song, figuring that "no one will buy the morbid son of a bitch." It's a great song, but the pathos goes right by me. I'm just not sympathetic to the guy. He WANTED to be miserable, it sounds like to me.

You have to have a couple of dead wife songs in the maudlin stuff. "Country Bumpkin" would probably rate a little better overall musically, but "Honey" seems perhaps a bit more effectively maudlin.

I'm de-emphasizing the suicide songs here, as I already did a Halloween collection just of that. CLICK HERE Still, you need at least a couple of those. "One Dyin' and a Buryin'" by Roger Miller rates high with me, and Bill Anderson's "Three AM" is quite good as well.

Bill Monroe wrote a particularly moving late period instrumental in the 1980s after he was diagnosed with cancer. He went on another dozen plus years, but "My Last Days on Earth" stands for a beautiful and profound final major artistic statement. This totally lacks the cheese aspect that actually makes a lot of these other songs interesting. It's just straight up contemplation of mortality.

Finally, note the old Doc Watson Family recording of the standard "House Carpenter," which seems to involve some serious supernatural stuff.

Here ya go, then, with fixings for your:

COUNTRY DEATH HALLOWEEN CD MIX
"Jeannie's Afraid of the Dark" - Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton
"He Stopped Loving Her Today" - George Jones
"Country Bumpkin" - Cal Smith
"My Farewell Party" - Gene Watson
"The Long Black Veil" - The Band
"Honey" - Bobby Goldsboro
"One Dyin' and a Buryin'" - Roger Miller
"Three AM" - Bill Anderson
"The Legend of Wooley Swamp" - Charlie Daniels Band
"Ode to Billie Joe" - Bobbie Gentry
"Seasons in the Sun" - The Kingston Trio
"Sing Me Back Home" - Merle Haggard
"Green Green Grass of Home" - Porter Wagoner
"Wreck on the Highway" - Roy Acuff
"The Carroll County Accident" - Porter Wagoner
"Phantom 309" - Red Sovine
"The Ride" - David Allan Coe
"Long Black Limousine" - Elvis Presley
"Pictures From Life's Other Side" - Grandpa Jones
"The House Carpenter" - Doc Watson Family
"Me and Little Andy" - Dolly Parton
"My Last Days on Earth" - Bill Monroe
"O Death" - Ralph Stanley
"Raggedy Ann" - Little Jimmie Dickens

Dig also Halloween CD mixes of suicide, country death, country murder, and songs to murder your woman by. Throw in a nice bug mix.