1. XTC, "Greenman"
(from the album Apple Venus Volume 1)
Written by Andy Partridge
Label: BMG/Chrysalis
Released: 1999
Published by ©Universal Music Publishing Group
Used by permission

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"And you know for a million years he has been your lover/ Down to the skin to the core."

I think this track may have been my introduction to the whole Green Man mythos, which plays such a crucial role in The Wolf in Winter (and is also referenced in Conquest, the science fiction novel that I wrote with my other half, Jennie Ridyard). I find that collision of the pagan and the Christian, the notion of ancient foliate figures becoming decorative aspects of church architecture, quite fascinating, and not a little sinister. I've also long been a fan of XTC, to the extent that I gave their name to my ABC to XTC radio show, and "Greenman" remains my favourite song from the later part of their career.

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Further listening: English Settlement, The Big Express, Oranges & Lemons

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2. Sun Kil Moon, "Among the Leaves"
(from the album Among the Leaves)
Written by Mark Kozelek
Label: Caldo Verde Records
Released: 2012
Licensed courtesy of Caldo Verde Records

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"Under moons I pass the tombs/ Cross the highways, smell the fumes/ See a girl frighteningly gaunt..."

When I compiled the first of these collections for The Black Angel back in 2005, "Summer Dress" by Red House Painters was among the tracks I regarded as integral, in part because I've always loved Mark Kozelek's band so much, but also because the ghost of Parker's dead wife manifests herself in the books as a half-glimpsed figure wearing a summer dress, and everything about that song's mood and lyrics seemed to echo what I was trying to achieve in those scenes. I subsequently met Mark at a concert in Dublin and passed on a copy of the book and CD to him. Out of that arose an ongoing correspondence by letter and e-mail, and a friendship that I value dearly. I was very touched, therefore, when "among the leaves," a simple phrase from The Whisperers, caught his eye and led him to name a 2012 album by his band Sun Kil Moon after it. The title track is just beautiful.

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Further listening: Ghosts of the Great Highway, April, Red House Painters (also known as Rollercoaster)

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3. Susanna, "Lay All Your Love On Me."
(from the album Flowers of Evil)
Written by Benny Göran Bror Andersson, Bjorn K. Ulvaeus
Label: SusannaSonata
Released: 2008
Copyright ©Union Songs Musikforlag AB
Used by permission of Susanna

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"It was like shooting a sitting duck..."

From the beginning I knew that Ghosts was going to concentrate heavily on cover versions, which meant that this track by the gifted Norwegian singer Susanna Wallumrød was going to be top of the list. It's so good that it even sparks a discussion in The Burning Soul after Parker hears it playing in a coffee shop. I think ABBA was the first group to catch my attention when I was a child, and I covered my bedroom wall with posters of the band. I never really understood the wave of irony that seemed to wash over ABBA's reputation in the years after their demise, as if the only way that one could listen to them was with a crooked, condescending smile on one's face. This is adult music, about adult concerns. Stripped here of its electro-disco backing, and slowed down to a ballad, it becomes almost unbearably sad.

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Further listening: Melody Mountain, Wild Dog

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4. Scud Mountain Boys, "Freight of Fire"
(from the album The Early Year)
Written by Joe Pernice
Administered by BUG Music
Released: 1997
Published by Bony Gap Music (BMI)
Courtesy of Ashmore Records

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"Bring your guns/ Bring out all your ammunition..."

This song was originally earmarked for the Love & Whispers compilation released at the same time as The Whisperers, but we had problems securing the rights. In the 1990s, inspired in part by a compilation CD entitled New Sounds of the Old West included with Britain's Uncut magazine and a similar collection from the Loose record label, I became very interested in the emerging Americana genre of music. A number of the artists from those CDs—Jim White, Lambchop, Willard Grant Conspiracy—have appeared on some of the earlier compilations created to go with my books. I came to the Scud Mountain Boys through the Pernice Brothers, the band formed by Joe Pernice after SMB broke up, and "Freight of Fire" just caught me right from the start. I think, if I remember correctly, that the song is referenced in The Reapers, although as the years go by I struggle to remember the details of a lot of my earlier novels, which leads to embarrassing moments at signings when readers ask me questions that I can't answer, causing them to wonder if I actually wrote the books in the first place.

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Further listening: Massachusetts, Overcome by Happiness (by Pernice Brothers)

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5. Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell, "Hares on the Mountain"
(from the EP The North Farm Sessions)
Trad. Arr. Kearney/Farrell
Label: Rabble Rouser Music
Released: 2009
Published (P) by Rabble Rouser Ltd
Licensed courtesy of Rabble Rouser Limited

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"If all the young girls were hares on a mountain/ How many young men would take guns and go hunting?"

Some years ago I went to see The Unthanks, a fine Northumberland folk group, perform at Whelan's in Dublin. Their support act was Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell, a young folk duo of whom, I suspect, most of the audience had not heard before. It's not doing The Unthanks an injustice to say that, had they been taken ill, everyone present would quite contentedly have settled down to listen to Kearney & Farrell for the evening. Their take on this love song from Southern England, which I think dates from the start of the last century, was the highlight of the night. Perhaps it's my own dark turn of mind, but it struck me that there is something slightly unnerving about the couplet quoted above.

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Further listening: Kite

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6. The Blackeyed Susans, "This One Eats Souls"
(from the album Reveal Yourself 1989-2009)
Written by Kakulas/McComb
Label: Liberation Music
Released: 2009
Published by Mushroom Music
(P) & ©The Blackeyed Susans
Used by permission

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"You will be perfect host as it grows inside..."

One of the bands featured on the first of these compilation CDs was The Triffids from Perth, Australia. Their lead singer, the late David McComb, subsequently went on to join The Blackeyed Susans, and co-wrote "This One Eats Souls" with Phil Kakulas for their second album, All Souls Alive. It's a song about addiction, I think—McComb, who died tragically young just before his 37th birthday, had his demons—but, with its lyrical references to parasitism and possession, it provides a kind of counterpoint to the words and images used in the Parker books in connection with fallen angels, most notably the repository of souls known as Brightwell.

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Further listening: Wide Open Road—The Best of the Triffids

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7. Múm, "Green Grass of Tunnel"
Written by Tynes, Gunnar Oern/Valtysdottir, Kristin Anna/Valtysdottir, Gyda, Smarason, Oervar Thoreyjarson
Publisher: Lyrics (P)©Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
ISRC: GB-DCA-01-00149
Fatcat Records 2002

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"And when I'm swimming/In through a tunnel, I shut my eyes."

To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure what this song is about, but I don't think it really matters. There's something in its combination of almost music-box notes, gentle percussion, and childlike vocals that conjures up a sense of being caught in a state somewhere between sleeping and waking, a kind of conscious dreaming. It's quite lovely.

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Further listening: Yesterday Was Dramatic—Today is OK

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8. Envoy, "Every Dead Thing"
Written, performed, mixed and produced by David O'Brien/Envoy Used by kind permission of David O'Brien

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Envoy is the brainchild of one David O'Brien, a bookseller at Waterstones in Drogheda, Ireland, and a consistently generous supporter of my work. Over the years he has created a virtual soundtrack to the Parker novels, a project that I find both immensely flattering, and slightly terrifying in the degree of work involved for David. "Every Dead Thing" drew me in immediately, and it can stand proudly alongside the other pieces here.

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Further listening: https://soundcloud.com/envoy-2/sets/every-dead-thing

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