Songs Of The Civil War

Butternut Boys String Band



"The Butternut Boys are not all boys. Our name comes from Bob Dyer's song about a Missouri folk hero known as "Johnny Whistletrigger." "Butternut" also refers to the grayish-brown shade home-dyed Confederate uniforms often turned. Because of the commonness of such uniforms, Yankees often referred to Confederate soldiers as "butternuts."
The Butternut Boys String Band's mission in life is to preserve songs of the Civil War era, especially those that are not seen as politically correct today. We do not believe in bowdlerizing history--and we believe that all Americans lose, if our historical heritage is lost.
Founder HAROLD HAUGAARD sings lead and plays guitar, modern banjo, minstrel banjo, bodhran, and concertina. Give him an instrument and he'll master it.
GLENN GUSTITUS hops from century to century; one moment he's on guitar, the next he's fine-tuning with sound equipment. We owe him many thanks for all his hard technical work.
CELIA MATER sings lead and harmony with Harold, and plays tin whistle, recorder, tambourine, and spoons. She hopes to learn bones and field drum, and put her piano skills to use with Civil War parlor songs. She also acts as music historian for the band.
The Instruments.
We try to play instruments as close in sound as possible to those used in the mid-19th century; however, that is not always economically possible.
Harold plays what is possibly the only reproduction minstrel-era (ca. 1840) banjo in Kansas, patterned from a museum original. You'll notice its sound is softer than that of the modern banjo, owing to the gut strings and calfskin head. It is also tuned at least a fourth lower. It was obtained from Bob Flesher Custom Banjos in kit form and built by Glenn.
The concertina--younger brother of the accordion--being small and portable, found itself on board many Naval vessels; its haunting sound must have sung of home to many a lonely sailor in wartime.
Tin whistles--related to the military fife-- made the trip from the British Isles to America, and would have been popular with Southerners of Celtic origin. Their chief virtue was portability.
For recorders Celia has not managed to find a period reference, but it is likely that they were known by other names--perhaps simply as whistle, possibly as flageolets (a similar wind instrument of the flute family). There are times when only a recorder produces the soft, melancholy tones appropriate to a certain period song.
Spoons have probably gone straight from the kitchen table to the songfest in the parlor for many centuries. They also featured prominently --with bones--on the pre-war minstrel stage--and very possibly as instruments a simple country housewife might pick up to join in the family fun.
The tambourine has roots in far antiquity . It is related to the ancient Egyptian sistrum. In the Civil War era it also starred on the minstrel stage as a rhythm instrument.
The bodhran, an Irish-Scottish one-headed drum, crossed the Atlantic with immigrants--and in our case, pretends to be the bass drum with a regimental or shipboard band.
Our guitars are of modern design and timbre, because we do a lot of acoustic performances and need the carrying power. C.F. Martin's 00028VS is a close reproduction of their 1903 model small bodied guitar and is used in most live performances. For these recordings, a Gibson J100 was used.
The Music:
Marmaduke's Hornpipe.--This lively "hornpipe" (the name is derived from a medieval reed instrument, and refers to a skipping or hopping dance) gets the toes a-tappin'. The tune is anonymous, but comes from the Missouri fiddle tradition. The name refers to John Sappington Marmaduke, Confederate General and postwar governor of Missouri. Musicians of both sides commonly named wartime compositions for prominent military figures.
Keemo Kimo.--With folk music's origins tracing as far back as the Middle Ages in versions featuring frogs going a-courting, this particular version comes from slaves on the plantations of South Carolina. Also popular among whites, the nonsense song is known to have been sung by elements of the Army of Tennessee and General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. A marching song, as such, it is the granddaddy of modern cadence calls.
McLeod's Reel/Ryan's Polka medley.--Two lively reel tunes of Celtic origin, better known to some as "Missouri wedding music" due to the charming wedding reception scene in the movie, "Ride with the Devil." Everyone loves a reel--it's easy to dance to and fun to perform.
Pray, Maiden, Pray.--This lovely late-war (1864) waltz tune evokes pictures of handsome Confederate officers squiring the local belles at, perhaps, one of Jeb Stuart's "hastily-got-up" balls. Lyrics: A. W. Kercheval. Music: A. J. Turner.
Tombigbee Waltz.--From Ireland via Texas comes this waltz tune. There can never be too many waltz tunes at a dance!
Old King Crow.--In 1843 the minstrel stage gave birth to this playful nonsense song. Words and tune by A. F. Winnemore (composer of other minstrel tunes, such as the smash hit "Rose of Alabama"). It should be pointed out that though the blackface minstrel show played all over the United States, it was enormously popular in the North, where the sight of black faces was an exotic novelty.
Honest Pat Murphy.--Composer and lyricist are anonymous, which is a shame, for it has a swing and panache that are unforgettable. Songs about the Brave Irish Soldier proliferated during the war, such as "Meagher is leading the Irish Brigade," and "Corcoran's Irish Legion." The Confederacy also had songs about Irish-Americans, such as "Kelly's Irish Brigade." This one was originally entitled "Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade." Perhaps late-war, it reminded listeners that "the paths of glory lead but to the grave."
Riding a Raid.--This anonymous 1862 song took as its melody the Scottish traditional "Bonnie Dundee"--which, being about Scots Highlanders fighting the invading English, must have had considerable resonance for Confederates. It's a tribute to the great cavalryman Jeb Stuart, who sang in battle, and to the great Christian general, Stonewall Jackson.
O, Lud! Gals!-It's back to the ever-popular minstrel stage with this Dan Emmett song --yes, the same man who composed of "Dixie". The man was amazingly talented. Not only did he rise to fame on the minstrel stage, but he also wrote a fife and drum manual for the antebellum Army.
Adieu, Sweet Lovely Nancy.--This lively song cannot be dated with precision; like many folk tunes, its roots are obscure. Versions have been dated to the Napoleonic wars, though they are probably far older. Because the Confederacy had to enlist sailors from England and many other nations to man its infant Navy, we like to think that sailors on the famous raider CSS Alabama would have sung this, accompanied by such instruments as they might have packed along in their sea bags. We first heard this tune on a recording by Celia's friends, the talented duo Kim and Paul Caudell, of the 1st Tennessee Volunteer Infantry reenactment unit.
South Wind / Planxty Fanny Power.--Is a combination of two Irish tunes, "South Wind" and "Planxty (tribute to) Fannie Power," an 18th tune by blind Irish musician O'Carolan. The violinist is John Page, who played with us for a year.


TrackList:

01. Marmaduke's Hornpipe
02. Keemo Kimo
03. McLeod's Reel / Ryan's Polka
04. Pray, Maiden, Pray
05. Tombigbee Waltz
06. Old King Crow
07. Honest Pat Murphy
08. Riding a Raid
09. O Lud Gals
10. Adieu, Sweet Lovely Nancy
11. South Wind / Planxty Fanny Power

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The 2nd South Carolina String Band - Southern Soldier



"Robert E. Lee once said, "We couldn't have an army without music."

Throughout history, music has always been of great importance to the military. The American Civil War was no exception. Critical group activities such as drilling and marching were taught to rhythm so as to forge automatic responses by constant repetition - an effective tool for teaching troops maneuvers needed for going into battle. Bugle calls and drum figures were components of music used to instruct new recruits and to guide veteran soldiers in the field.

But perhaps the most important use of music was not on the parade ground or battlefield. Often in war there are long periods between battles spent waiting in camp or bivouac. Boredom was one of the soldier's worst enemies and music in camp was one of his principal antidotes. On campaign, regimental brass bands and field musicians playing fife and drum performed on the march and in bivouac. In winter quarters it was the camp band or minstrel troupe's job to keep up morale. Every brigade had its own minstrel show, with commanders trading or commandeering the best talent for their band.

The 2nd South Carolina String Band is a true recreation of such a camp band. These musicians originally met as did those among the volunteers of 1861 - as riflemen in a company of infantry. This band was formed as theirs was - to entertain themselves and their comrades around the campfire. Since 1989 when they first began to play together, some of the founding members have retired and some new men joined, but the music has continued to improve and flourish.

Regarded by many as the best band of their kind, they have played in concert and at period dances at nearly all of the major national reenactments of the last ten years, for fund raisers as at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, and at the dedication ceremonies for the last two monuments to ever be placed at Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. Their music can also be heard in two of Ken Burns' films, JAZZ and MARK TWAIN, as well as in performance and on the sound track of Ted Turner's GODS &GENERALS.

The 2nd South Carolina String Band is one of the most active and popular Civil War camp bands in America today.
With three albums and an hour-long video of music to their
credit, these boys are enjoyed by reenactors and anyone else who likes a rollicking good time. Their music is boisterous and high spirited, evoking the days when soldiers entertained their comrades around the campfire with the tunes of great American composers like Dan Emmett and Stephen Foster. Listening to the 2nd South Carolina String Band is an exciting experience that brings the sounds of the past to life.

Southern Soldier is a collection of songs and melodies which were well known to Southerners and Northerners alike; tunes that were a familiar and comfortable part of life in the years leading up to the War Between the States. Many of these compositions were written by the likes of Stephen Foster and Daniel Emmett, giants of the popular music industry of their day.

Some of the titles, Ol' Dan Tucker, Dixie's Land, and Hard Times Come Again No More, are still familiar to the modern-day ear. Other titles on this album, though not familiar to the eye, will be quickly recognizable to the ear. ALL selections on this album are performed on authentic instruments of the period and were chosen for the appealing nature of their rhythms and melodies. They are presented with as unique and individual a spirit as one might expect from a true Confederate camp band of the era.


Over the years since 1989, when the band was formed, we have made a concerted effort to grow in the music and the history of those times. This collection of songs and melodies that the soldiers brought with them from home to the war represents the harvest of that growth. It was and continues to be our intent as a group of musicians and living historians to try to capture the spirit and emotion of those tumultuous years. We believe that this album, Southern Soldier, has succeeded in that effort."


TrackList:

01. Ol' Dan Tucker
02. McLeod's Reel
03. Oh! Lud Gals
04. Boatman's Dance
05. Fisher's/Rickett's Hornpipes
06. Zip Coon
07. Hard Times Come Again No More
08. John Brown's March
09. John Brown's Dream
10. Oh, I'm a Good Ol' Rebel
11. Palmetto Quickstep
12. Keemo Kimo
13. Jackson in the Valley
14. Johnny Boker/Circus Jig/Jim Along Josie
15. Rock the Cradle, Julie
16. Jenny, Get Your Hoecake Done
17. The Arkansas Traveller
18. Southern Soldier
19. Dixie's Land

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2nd South Carolina String Band - In High Cotton
Favorite Camp Songs of the Civil War



IN HIGH COTTON will bring the listener back more than 150 years to hear music that was essentially laying the foundations of American popular music in the years leading up to the War Between the States. You’ll hear timeless melodies created by American musical icons Stephen Foster and Daniel Emmett, such as The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) and The Blue Tail Fly. Songs about life on the nation’s earliest highways of commerce – America’s mighty rivers. You’ll hear songs of heartbreak and songs of joy and delight. The listener will hear minstrel melodies that were adapted by the soldiers to reflect the experiences of war and by making fun of those hardships in song, make them easier to bear.


TrackList:

01 Lynchburg Town/Briggs’ Jig
02 Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)
03 Granny Will Your Dog Bite/Guilderoy
04 O Lemuel
05 ‘Twill Neber Do to Gib It Up So (De Ol’ Jim Ribber)
06 Liza Jane/Mississippi Sawyer/Road to Boston
07 I’m Gwine Ober de Mountain
08 De Blue Tail Fly
09 Angelina Baker/Angeline the Baker
10 Cripple Creek/Old Joe Clarke/The Girl I Left Behind Me
11 Jordan Is a Hard Road
12 Old Rosin the Beau
13 Glendy Burke
14 The White Cockade/Devil’s Dream
15 Down in Alabama
16 Bonnie Blue Flag

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2nd South Carolina String Band - Dulcem Melodies
Favorite Campfire Songs of the Civil War



"In this their fifth album, the 2nd South Carolina String Band once again brings you the songs and music that moved the American people of the early and mid-eighteen hundreds. They play the music that was in the hearts and minds and on the tongues of the citizen-soldiers that made up the ranks of the armies of the North and the South as they marched off to take part in the cataclysmic struggle that was to become the defining event of our nation’s history. They play it on instruments of the era and in an authentic manner and style that carries the listener back to simpler times. They play with a verve and excitement that infects even the most reserved listener with their own enjoyment and brings back to vibrant life the tumultuous energy of the American experience during the War Between the States. To experience the 2nd South Carolina String Band is, for a moment, to reach out and touch the past."


TrackList:

01 Nelly Bly
02 Hard Crackers Come Again No More
03 Stonewall Jackson’s Way/Garryowen
04 Listen to the Mockingbird/Siege of Vicksburg
05 Amazing Grace
06 Clare de Kitchen
07 Kelton’s Reel/Waiting For the Federals
08 My Old Kentucky Home
09 The Yellow Rose of Texas
10 Southron’s Battle Cry of Freedom
11 The Minstrel Boy
12 Southron’s Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!
13 Jim Along Josie
14 Sweet Evalina
15 War Song of Dixie
16 Hawks and Eagles

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2nd South Carolina String Band - Hard Road
Favorite Camp Songs of the Civil War



"The 2nd South Carolina String Band recorded their first album; WE’RE TENTING TONIGHT, in 1991. Containing 15 of the most popular songs of the War Between the States, it was well received from the start and continues to be a strong seller. In fact, it was so well received that the band was encouraged to produce a second album, WE ARE A BAND OF BROTHERS, released two years later in 1993. This recording profited from the experience gained since the first – being produced in a better studio with better technology – as well as from two more years of performances together by a band whose reputation was already spreading rapidly. This second album contained another 15 of the most well known songs of the era, thus making the two together a sort of “Top 30″ of the Civil War. Many years later, these two albums continue to attract listeners and fans, new and old. So much so that, pursuant to countless requests to bring them both out on CD, we have done just that! We are proud to offer the our first two albums together at last on one recording. The best of WE’RE TENTING TONIGHT and WE ARE A BAND OF BROTHERS, are here presented with a driving, spirited, and exciting sound worthy of the men whose memory and spirit we strive to honor and evoke."


TrackList:

Tenting in the Old Campground
Battle Cry of Freedom
Cavalier’s Waltz
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Cindy
Oh! Susanna
Invalid Corps
Buffalo Gals
Kingdom Coming
Bonnie Blue Flag
Jine the Cavalry
Ring de Banjo
Rose of Alabama
Camptown Races
Goober Peas
Cumberland Gap
Sweet Betsey from Pike
Lorena
The Vacant Chair
Richmond is a Hard Road

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Mark Gardner & Rex Rideout - Frontier Favourites
Old-Time Music of the Wild West



"Mark Gardner and Rex Rideout are today's premier performers and interpreters of the historic music of the American West. Gardner, in addition to his music, is a prolific historian and writer focusing on the 19th-century Western experience. His books include "Wagons for the Santa Fe Trade: Wheeled Vehicles and Their Makers, 1822-1880" (University of New Mexico Press) and "The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott" (co-authored with Marc Simmons, University of Oklahoma Press). Gardner's first CD, "Songs of the Santa Fe Trail and the Far West" (Native Ground Music) has been used on the soundtracks of several television documentaries, most notably "The U.S.-Mexican War, 1846-1848," a PBS documentary that aired nationally in 1998. Rex Rideout , a long-time student of the music of the American West, works in the Geology Department at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

From the well known fiddle tune "Arkansas Traveller" to obscure pieces such as "Capt. Jinks of the Horse Marines," Gardner and Rideout's "Frontier Favorites: Old-Time Music of the Wild West" offers a variety of historic popular music rarely heard on one release. A wide selection of period instruments were used in the recording: fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, bones, and even jawbone! Gardner used six different banjos to offer different historic textures for the listener, including a reproduction 1840s tack-head banjo, a circa 1900 S.S. Stewart Universal Favorite, and a 1963 Vega Folk Ranger. Period playing styles were also used throughout to make the music as authentic as possible.

Following is a review of "Frontier Favorites" by popular Colorado author and musician Jon Chandler:

There is a scratchy wax recording of my great grandfather Morgan Patterson fiddling Turkey in the Straw, cut on his 80th birthday sometime in the late 1940's. After a few moments of dissonance as the modern ear relearns the musical language of a bygone era, the song becomes thrilling, guiding the mind's eye into America's past. When I slipped Frontier Favorites: Old-Time Music of the Wild West into the CD player and advanced it to Turkey in the Straw, Rex Rideout's fiddle burst from the speakers as if played by Morgan at a Southern Colorado barn dance in the 1880's. The hair on my neck stood up for a good ten minutes.
With Frontier Favorites, Rideout and his musical cohort Mark Gardner have created a stylistically accurate period piece filled with 21 tunes that are historically exact, yet can be appreciated by contemporary sensibilities. Sound, composition, instrumental technique and vocal technique - each is absolutely perfect, a dramatic tribute to our frontier legacy. In essence, the songs of the American Frontier are brought to life in exactly the form they would have been heard a century and a half ago.
This is no revisionist project, with smooth 21st century licks played on $10,000 humidified guitars, and vocals sung in 1990's Texas-speak by slicks who likely think Garry Owen is a game show host. No, this is history, with all its beauty and warts intact. It is eerily accurate, performed with skill and devotion by musical historians who could easily be transported to 1850 and not be found out! Mark Gardner and Rex Rideout have done more than just record the tunes of the American Frontier. They have recreated the music through exacting research combined with impressive musical ability. What they bring to the listener is the prototype for Country, Americana, Western and Folk music; before Nashville, before Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams and Uncle Dave Macon. Its instrumentation was portable and nearly primitive, with fiddle, banjo, mandolin and bones taking center stage in an era when guitars were a rarity.
The music on this disc is precisely what your ancestors heard, what they danced to. It encompasses the songs they sang and the tunes they hummed. It's a musical journey to the mid-19th century that transcends cultural nostalgia; this music is realistic enough in style and content to have been played and sung in its exact form on the Western frontier.
This is an essential recording for those who seek to understand the roots of America's music. It is rollicking, it is exhilarating, and most of all, it is real."


TrackList:

01. Old Dan Tucker (Daniel D. Emmett, et al., 1843) 2:23
02. The Arkansas Traveller (trad., 1847) 1:36
03. Oh! Susanna (Stephen C. Foster, 1848) 3:20
04. De Boatman's Dance (Daniel D. Emmett, et al., 1843) 2:40
05. Buffalo Gals (orig. Lubly Fan, John Hodges, 1844) 2:07
06. Red Haired Boy (orig. Little Beggar Man, 1700s Scotland) 1:33
07. Turkey in the Straw (orig. Zip Coon, circa 1830) 1:35
08. Old Rosin the Beau (anon., 1838) 4:13
09. Camptown Races (Stephen C. Foster, 1850) 1:25
10. Old Joe Clark (trad., late 19th century) 3:12
11. Soldier's Joy (orig. The King's Head, trad., 1700s) 1:50
12. Song of Texas (lyrics anon., c. 1845; melody Jim Sanford, 1844) 2:20
13. Capt. Jinks of the Horse Marines (Lingard & Maclagan, 1868) 2:27
14. The Girl I Left Behind Me (trad., 1600s Ireland) 1:31
15. Garry Owen (trad., late 1700s Ireland) 1:18
16. The Battle Cry of Freedom (George F. Root, 1862) 4:21
17. Gen. Pike's Dixie (lyrics Albert Pike, 1861; melody Dan Emmett) 3:43
18. Lorena (H. D. Webster and J. P. Webster, 1857) 6:14
19. Grandfather's Clock (Henry C. Work, 1876) 2:06
20. The Santa Fe Trail (James Grafton Rogers, 1911) 3:28
21. Barlow Knife (trad., a personal favorite, probably 20th cent.) 1:57

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