Singer-songwriter Jack Saunders likes a little 'Mayhem and Murder'

Jack Saunders called on seven of his singer-songwriter friends and requested that each of them come to work Tuesday at McGonigel's Mucky Duck with three songs in which at least one person dies. So the show, titled "Someone Must Die: Songs About Mayhem and Murder," should "have a couple dozen bodies at least by the time it's over," he says.

Saunders has been a regular on Houston stages for the better part of four decades, playing his own music and also providing accompaniment for his musical friends. But Halloween prompted him to try something a little different.

"Mainly I was raised on British Invasion stuff from the '60s," he says. "Nobody died in any of those songs. But I got deep into bluegrass for a few years and noticed all these people dying. Tragedies and cold-blooded murders. I was very interested in all these different sorts of death songs and murder ballads. Some of them were dark, others were comic. I thought it might be interesting to do a whole night of that, but the thought of doing it myself, that seemed a little morbid. So I invited other people to do it with me."

Joining Saunders will be Mike Stinson, Bettysoo, John Evans, Randy Weeks, Hatt Harlan, Robbie Saunders and Michael O'Connor. Each was allowed to choose original songs, covers or old murder tunes from the public domain.

Saunders' winding career from British Invasion listener to bluegrass enthusiast speaks to his versatility as a performer and instrumentalist. A Navy brat, Saunders grew up bi-coastal, spending time in both Rhode Island and California. His family was living in Alaska when he was in high school. After graduation, he visited a sister in Dallas and decided to stay. He spent a few years in Austin, where he quickly fell in with the city's lively music scene, before the Montrose music scene in Houston pried him away in 1976. Here Saunders found regular work with songwriters like John Vandiver and Shake Russell, with whom he played as a long-running duo in the '80s and '90s.

"When I came down to Texas, I was pretty much a single-cell amoeba that only played bass," he says. "I'd written a couple of songs. And when I turned 21, I was certain it's what I wanted to do. I knew I'd starve before I'd work a regular job, which is about the only way to be a musician. So I looked around and thought, 'OK, I play bass, but if I learn guitar I can back somebody else up, and that's another way to survive doing this.' I just kept doing that and didn't give up. Everybody needs a guy in the band who can jump around and play what the song needs."

Saunders' foray into bluegrass prompted him to pick up the mandolin and fiddle. He also found another revenue stream when he opened his White Cat Recording studio in 1996. Today, he keeps busy recording, backing his many friends (Weeks, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Greg Trooper) on recordings or in concert and playing his own music. Last year, he released his fourth solo record, "Grit and Jangle."

Expect "Someone Must Die" to be longer on grit than jangle, though Saunders says death in popular song has as much variety as life does - with the possibility of gunfighter ballads or songs about natural disasters.

"Even songs we take for granted, like 'Rockabye, Baby,' it's kind of terrible," he says laughing.

Homicide will likely be the prevalent theme, though.

"My dad used to sing 'Frankie and Johnny,' " Saunders says. " 'Tom Dooley,' I think that was a No. 1 hit. And there's 'Knoxville Girl.' ... The narrator never says why he murdered her. He just gleefully beat her with a stick and threw her in the river. Throwing people into the river seemed to be a recurring theme. I guess back then that was all you had to do. It was just easier to get away with it."