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Past Meets Present in The 1861 Project
I have always been fascinated with American History. It was one of the few classes I actually paid attention to in high school. Over the past decade, I have spent an inordinate amount of time studying early American history, mostly by listening to podcasts of The Thomas Jefferson Hour. I am just intrigued by that whole period, and the improbable convergence of forces and remarkable people who made it possible to create a new nation out an idea.
It’s amazing to how much the Founders got right. But given the tenor of their times, there was plenty they got wrong, too.
This year, we begin observing the 150th anniversary of the brutal conflict that set about to correct the most egregious of all the mistakes that were included in the nation’s founding.
And I am very excited to be involved in a project that somehow manages to fuse my equal interests in Americana/acoustic music and American history.
The 1861 Project was initiated by songwriter, guitarist and producer Thomm Jutz, who I met last year after he’d produced Dana Cooper’s CD, The Conjurer. Thomm has assembled an outstanding cast of songwriters, singers and musicians, and has written and recorded nearly two dozen songs that imagine the stories of the real people who fought and lived through the American Civil War. With the original music providing a catalyst, the project hopes to stimulate online discussion of what that long-ago conflict means to us today.
Hoping to take advantage of the Internet and social media networks that were not around when the centennial was observed (egads… fifty years ago!) we’re billing this as “Facebook meets Ken Burns.”
Visit The 1861 Project website and listen to some of the tunes, and follow the links to Facebook and Twitter.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Whatever You’re Having, Etc. We’ll let this video from Dana Cooper speak (sing) for itself and then I’m unplugging for a couple of days.
Today, for your listening and viewing pleasure, we offer the following the trailer for a documentary called “Out of the Ground,” which explores “how Pittsburgh and its neighboring regions in western Pennsylvania have been profoundly shaped by coal mining for over 100 years.” Pay close attention to the music that accompanies the narrative:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkB0ux5dfvA[/youtube]
That’s our friend and client Ken Bonfield, playing a track called “Requiem” from his digital-only EP, Harbortown.
“Out of the Ground” looks like a very interesting project, as it appears to document one of the pivot points from America’s agrarian past to its industrial future, a shift in which coal was one of the dominant forces. Congratulations to Ken for getting his tunes placed in such a worthy project.
Over the weekend of August 1, Ann and I were privileged to accompany our friend and client Dana Cooper as he opened two shows for his old friend Lyle Lovett in Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri. During both of his shows, Lyle brought Dana back out on the stage to join him a duet of Dana’s song Needless to Say (from Dana’s 1992 CD Stone by Stone).
Click the photo below to open a window with a slide show compilation of photos from both nights; Click the “play” button in the lower right of to start the slide show and play Dana’s recording of Needless to Say.
Dana Cooper joins Lyle Lovett for "Needless to Say" - Kansas City, Aug 1, 2010
Click the photo above to open the slide show window; click the player button in the lower right corner to start the slide show and music (Needless to Say, from Dana Cooper’s 1992 CD “Stone by Stone.”
Dana Cooper appeared on the Music City Roots program, “Live from the Loveless Cafe” on the outskirts of Nashville on Wednesday, May 12. Click the image to launch the slide show; click the play button (arrow, lower right) in the slide show to start the show accompanied by “Leave A Little Mark” (from The Conjurer) recorded live during the show:
Dana Cooper LIVE on Music City Roots
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