Ode to Billie Joe

Bobbie Gentry's Mississippi mystery is mostly a family chatting over dinner while news of a suicide is passed around with the biscuits. There is no real chorus to hit, just a low, sultry, conversational line that repeats, so it rewards a calm voice and a good ear for understatement. The best performances underplay everything and let the audience notice what the family is not saying. The subject is a death, handled without detail, so it suits a seated, listening crowd rather than a rowdy one.