Angels of Death from the Folk Song Army

Instapundit links to Ann Althouse, who points to this piece in the New York Times about earnest folkies going about nursing homes to ply their trade to the terminally ill, who have but only one means of escape.

Every week, three music therapists from MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care crisscross the city and suburbs to sing songs to the dying. With guitars strapped to their backs, a flute or tambourine and a songbook jammed in their backpacks, they play music for more than 100 patients, in housing projects, in nursing homes and even in a lavish waterfront home. The time for chemotherapy and radiation is over.

One should think after all that ghastly chemo and radiation those poor souls had suffered enough; now they must endure "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" as they finally shuffle off this mortal coil: O death, where is thy sting--and look slippy about it! It all brings to mind Tom Lehrer, the 50s-60s singer-songwriter satirist and one of the last of the funny liberals, who nonetheless had no time for modern pop music (once referring to "rock and roll and other children's records") and positively detested folk music, putting that dislike into song.