THE BALLAD has been part of American history since before the country had a name. In this book, Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus have assembled an astonishing group of writers and artists--Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford of the Mekons, John Rockwell, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Marsh, and more than a dozen other novelists, essayists, performers, and critics--to explore the ineffable power of the American ballad. In words and in drawings, the collaborators have tapped the veins of America's most imaginative and expressive form. From "Barbara Allen," one of the earliest, through "The Wreck of the Old 97," to contemporary ballads by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, "The Rose & the Briar presents a rich new patch of art and commentary--like the ballads, no two the same, but all of a piece, about stories, storytellers, and American death, love, and liberty.