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Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier are two of the best storytellers in the podcasting space today. The two hosts are teaming up with Cadence13 for the second season of Crimetown Presents: The Ballad of Billy Balls. ADT will be the presenting sponsor of the entire season.
Smerling and Stuart-Pontier also host the great series Crimetown with digs deep into the dirty politics of Detroit and Providence. This new series is edited and produced by Smerling and Stuart-Pontier and hosted by activist and writer iO Tillett Wright.
To set the scene for The Ballad of Billy Balls: “Downtown New York, early summer, 1982. A man bursts into an East Village storefront apartment and shoots musician Billy Balls. The motive? Unknown. Billy’s body? It just disappears. Rebecca, Billy’s girlfriend, doesn’t know what to do and has no way to say goodbye. Now, thirty-seven years later, iO Tillett Wright helps give Rebecca the opportunity to let go. In Crimetown Presents: The Ballad of Billy Balls, Wright goes searching for answers and unravels a mystery of love and loss, the tender binds of family, and the stories we learn to tell ourselves just to survive.”
The first 2 episodes are already up and running.
“I would call it an experiment. To try to listen to a time and place many have never experienced,” said Marc Smerling. “We combined unique voices, music, and sound effects to bring the listener to a very emotional place. We want our audience to feel it.”
“It’s a crime story, but it’s more about love, loss, and the deep binds of family,” said Zac Stuart-Pontier. “‘The Ballad of Billy Balls’ may have the most heart of any podcast we’ve ever done.”
“This show is everything I’ve dreamed of,” said iO Tillett Wright. “True crime, no-bullshit storytelling, and a movie for your ears.”
“Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier have raised the bar for investigative storytelling and continue to redefine the true crime genre in podcasting,” said Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer, Cadence13. “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with them for this intense, riveting story.”
Comments:
Hi My name is Tim Slattery and I live in beautiful Western Australia. I am fairly new to podcasts; however having discovered podcast such as Billy Balls my sanity is stabilised. Although we don’t have Donald Trump unfortunately Rupert Murdoch is one of ours and unfortunately how he has taken over much of the worlds media and is main man when it comes to the purveyor of ‘Inverted Totalitarianism’; and therefore I will leave at that; thank the Cosmos for Podcasting Production Houses such as your outfit. I think that podcasting is an exciting media a chance to correct the current managed democracy environments and abstracts such as natural justice can be rebooted, Already here in Australia some controversial cold cases have been reopened and people have found closure and justice reviewed and I hope that podcasting will further the empowerment of citizens to effect change and challenge the system intelligently. Besides that serious business I just adore the medium of podcasting particularly the ethnographic narrative; Billy Balls was an example as although I wasn’t in NYC at the time I was here and as a musician of that generation could smell and taste story. I played in several bands at that time in places like St. Kilda in Melbourne infamous Ballroom Prince of Wales Esplanade etc and shared the bill along with equipment with the Birthday Party, Nick Cave’s Band ( never liked the chap) and there were many other people such as Colin Hay and many other people Who are still making a living out of that business; resilience is word that comes to mind. Although domesticated in struggling middle class I still play and record for pleasure at home; frequently strange enough collaborating with mainly American musicians with a similar background and we publish for the hell of it on Soundcloud and Reverbnation. As I have Daw recording programs and a Rode Podmaster I have even entertained the idea of podcasting if I ever find surplus time. Having had and led a privileged life of experiencing many incredibly eccentric opportunities I am one of those individuals who can say hand on heart “Life is often far more outrageously complex than fiction” you couldn’t make this stuff up Oh my God and I guess for all that I am indeed a wealthy man hehehehe. Thank you and all the podcasting community in your sector; absolutely amazing so all power to you and your entrepreneurial environment; so always value it and never sell it out I can foresee that they will come, we cannot have joy enlightenment and love being dispersed to the public- Thank You Sincere Regards Tim Slattery