Snakefarm are the collaboration between singer Anna Domino and her guitarist partner Michael Delory. 'Songs From My Funeral' could well be described as a concept album in that the themes for the songs are murder ballads, songs about death and the consequences of the opening up of the American Midwest through the building of railways; sometimes more than one motif is included in a song. Even the lullaby sung at the end is distinctly unsettling. All the songs are reinterpretations of traditional American folk ballads. An interesting, if somewhat academic, discussion on the resurgent interest of these American folk classics and the relation between them and the psyche of present day post-millennium America can be found in Anat Pick's essay: 'Death and Democracy: Snakefarm's Songs from my Funeral and the New World Gothic'.
Now all this sounds quite gloomy and depressing, but it's not. Thanks to Snakefarm's reworking of these folk classics, the results whilst dark and atmospheric are actually surprisingly up-tempo. The darkness comes from Anna Domino's vocals, which through the use of filters and other effects sounds cool, sultry but at times also detached and remote. There are distinct similarities here to the voices of Laurie Anderson and of Margo Timmins (singer with the Cowboy Junkies). This coolness is largely counterbalanced by the imaginative use of sampling, wind instruments and drum programming, and of time signatures, hence the seemingly contradictory musical styles suggested at the beginning.