Top crime writer Mark Billingham and country duo My Darling Clementine will team up in Birmingham to present The Other Half, a “unique collaboration combining storytelling and song”.
Billingham featured the songs of his favourite contemporary country artists My Darling Clementine in his latest novel The Bones Beneath. They are working together for the first time on The Other Half.
Billingham explains, “I’ve written a good deal about the unusual horrors that can befall people, but when you listen to these songs you realise that everyday life contains so much powerful drama and ordinary tragedy.
“Just trying to love somebody, to hold a relationship together when it’s dying, to keep going when love destroys you. I wanted to write about the fact that love can do a lot more damage than hate and the songs of My Darling Clementine describe that perfectly, so it’s a thrill to be working with them.”
He continues, “The Other Half is about people looking for something, so there’s hope too and there’s always the possibility of redemption. Let’s not forget though that I’m a crime writer, so I may sneak a murder or two in there as well.”
In the show Billingham reads his story which is set in a rundown Memphis bar. Three couples tell their different stories of bliss, heartbreak, desire, death and domestic horror.
My Darling Clementine is husband and wife duo Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish whose first album How Do You Plead?, released in 2011, was hailed as “the finest country album ever made by a British artist”.
Lou Dalgleish says, “When I wrote The Other Half for our debut album, I had no idea it would become the title for a new, exciting collaboration with Mark. It’s such an honour to know that he felt inspired to write a story around our songs.”
The Other Half lasts about an hour. After the interval, My Darling Clementine will perform a full live set. It will be staged in the Studio at Birmingham REP on Monday 10 November.