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Thread: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

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    Default Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Here are six Civil War era songs in standard notation and
    mandolin tablature:

    The Bonnie Blue Flag (F & G); The Battle Cry of Freedom (Bb &
    G); Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (C & D); When
    Johnny Comes Marching Home (Gm, Am, Em); Just Before The
    Battle, Mother (Bb & G); Tenting On The Old Campground (A &
    G).

    My deepest appreciation to Benjamin Robert Tubb at Public
    Domain Music


    Click image for larger version. 

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    ~~~~~~
    Mike

  2. The following members say thank you to Mike Pilgrim for this post:


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    Moderator JEStanek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Michael, thanks for this especially today on the 150th Anniversary of the start of the War Between the States. Your additions to my music folio are always enjoyed and appreciated.

    Jamie
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    My favorite Civil War songs are "The Rebel Soldier" and "Last Letter Home". Supposedly, the Last Letter Home was written by a survivor of the battle of Gettysburg. I learned it from a Sam Bush album but had to wait quite a few years before running into someone who knew a third verse that Sam did not include in his version. The third verse is...Thorough the day I watched those Southern boys go down, and they lay like Georgia peaches, bruised and broken on the ground, through the night I wondered is it worth the pain, and I screamed for revenge and called your name.

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    That era is one of my favorite specialties.
    "Just Before The Battle, Mother" and " Tenting On The Old Campground"(I think the title is actually "Tenting Tonight") are two of my all time favorite songs.
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Thanks Mike
    I watch the Civil Wars series every time it is on PBS. I love the music of the era and always say to my self I need to learn some song from the Civil War.
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    Registered User Jesse Harmon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Thanks Michael, Interesting site. I'll add these to my new collection of mandolin music.

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    I do regular Civil War Songs programs (last Sunday at the George Eastman House in Rochester), and these are great standards to use. Others well-known ones that work well:
    Goober Peas (published 1865 in New Orleans)
    Marching Through Georgia
    Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching
    Lincoln and Liberty
    (tune is Rosin the Beau)

    Some great songs collected from Frank Proffitt of of Tom Dooley fame: Going 'Cross the Mountains and We Go Marching On, another John Brown's Body variant.

    Faded Coat of Blue is another great song; it has a local connection here (written in Caledonia NY), and I use the original published tune from 1863, but the Carter Family's variant on the tune works as well.
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    My band is into Civil War songs also, my favorite is "Have Someone Play Dixie For Me", we also have two originals that we have penned and put on a CD...Also "Loreena" is a good one, not sure if that is from the Civil War or another war....We do "Rebel Solidier"and a few others....I love the TV shows about the war and there was a whole section in The Washington Post last weekend showing some great happenings that were going on here in Maryland and Northern Va....I frequently take my grand kids to some of the battlefields in this area and walk around with them so they can read all of the plaques...

    Another great song that I almost forgot is "Atlanta Is Burning"

    Willie

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    And then there is "Two Little Boys"...Since my band name is taken from a civil war site, Durham Station, we play quite a few of those songs....

    Willie

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    It's an interesting issue, as to whether to play only songs actually written/sung during the Civil War era, or whether to mix in the many excellent "new" songs about the Civil War. Since I do mostly museum/restoration/historical society work, I only do "period" songs, and try to evoke (costume, 19th-century instruments) the sound and style of the war era. So I don't do Legend of the Rebel Soldier or other songs written recently, though I do appreciate them and enjoy hearing others do them.
    Allen Hopkins
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Quote Originally Posted by Willie View Post
    My band is into Civil War songs also, my favorite is "Have Someone Play Dixie For Me", we also have two originals that we have penned and put on a CD...Also "Loreena" is a good one, not sure if that is from the Civil War or another war....We do "Rebel Solidier"and a few others....I love the TV shows about the war and there was a whole section in The Washington Post last weekend showing some great happenings that were going on here in Maryland and Northern Va....I frequently take my grand kids to some of the battlefields in this area and walk around with them so they can read all of the plaques...

    Another great song that I almost forgot is "Atlanta Is Burning"

    Willie
    Lorena dates from 1858, and was extremely popular during the War.
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    This is another great (recent) tune about the war by Andrew McKnight, On the road to Appomottox.
    http://www.andrewmcknight.net/index.php?q=node/94

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Yeah Allen, I guess the OP WAS looking for songs that were written during the Civil war era, I didn`t read his post good enough to understand that, good point...I`m usually half asleep when I get on here....Actually it`s an old age thing, someday you will be there and will see what I mean....

    I don`t know if I have ever posted it on here but I really enjoy your post when you have looked up things and let us know all of the facts, I need to learn more about this computer.....I guess thats where you get most of your info from....

    Willie

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Quote Originally Posted by Willie View Post
    ...it`s an old age thing, someday you will be there and will see what I mean...I don`t know if I have ever posted it on here but I really enjoy your post when you have looked up things and let us know all of the facts..I guess that's where you get most of your info from...
    Willie, thanx for the kind words. By the way, I'm 67 and I do know what you mean, yes I do; I'm "there" already. And I love using Google (my younger son was a software engineer for Google, before moving on to Twitter last year) to find out stuff. There are so many original recordings now posted on YouTube, as well as contemporary videos of songs and musicians. I remember trying to find songs 20 years ago, looking through a shelf of songbooks and Sing Out! reprints and coming up short most times. Now much of that is at our fingertips.
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Thanks, Michael! What a beautiful way to celebrate something so ugly.
    Theo Wecker
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Quote Originally Posted by Denny Gies View Post
    My favorite Civil War songs are "The Rebel Soldier" and "Last Letter Home". Supposedly, the Last Letter Home was written by a survivor of the battle of Gettysburg. I learned it from a Sam Bush album but had to wait quite a few years before running into someone who knew a third verse that Sam did not include in his version. The third verse is...Thorough the day I watched those Southern boys go down, and they lay like Georgia peaches, bruised and broken on the ground, through the night I wondered is it worth the pain, and I screamed for revenge and called your name.
    Also one of my favorites and always an audience favorite. I have it that Last Letter Home was written by David McDade (drummer for Amazing Rhythm Aces) and James H. Brown, Jr. (keyboardist for the Aces). McDade died in 1998. Here is their version on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8PxAjgtoR8

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Also on that you-tube site is a version of "Last Letter Home" by Sam Bush, at a little faster speed though...It`s a great song and one that I will surely be a learning soon....

    Willie

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Easy to get confused between "period" songs from the Civil War, and later songs about the Civil War. The song Two Brothers -- "Two brothers on their way, one wore blue and one wore gray" -- gets played a lot by re-enactor musicians, but it's a recent (1960's?) composed song by Irving Gordon. And we all know about Ashokan Farewell, composed by Jay Ungar in 1974 but forever linked with the Civil War by Ken Burns' documentary soundtrack.

    To most musicians, makes no never-mind, as they say; they're not trying to re-create a historical period, just play some songs old and new around a particular subject or theme. To musicians like me, working the smaller niche of historical programming, a certain level of research is really required. And also, the consistency to reject playing a lot of really great songs, because they're not from the Civil War era.
    Allen Hopkins
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Much Thanks now i can't wait to start playing them
    steven shelton

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Yes thanks!
    My OT band plays many Civil War era tunes. Actually our range is about from the Civil War to the 1920's. I really enjoy playing them. One we do is a tune called Camp Chase... the name of an early Yankee Civil War prison camp. The story goes ... in the early part of the Civil War this "Camp Chase" near Columbus OH ... the prisoners had a sort of country club arangement, plenty to eat, entertainment on Sundays and such. The warden decided that he would have a fiddle contest and the person that wins it he said he was gonna turn em loose. It's a cool tune.
    Last edited by woodwizard; May-19-2011 at 12:48pm.
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Quote Originally Posted by woodwizard View Post
    Yes thanks!
    My OT band plays many Civil War era tunes. Actually our range is about from the Civil War to the 1920's. I really enjoy playing them. One we do is a tune called Camp Chase... the name of an early Yankee Civil War prison camp. The story goes ... in the early part of the Civil War this "Camp Chase" near Columbus OH ... the prisoners had a sort of country club arangement, plenty to eat, entertainment on Sundays and such. The warden decided that he would have a fiddle contest and the person that wins it he said he was gonna turn em loose. It's a cool tune.
    here's our take on "Camp Chase"
    Attached Files Attached Files
    I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Thanks for posting this. I have The Bonnie Blue Flag, Battle Cry of Freedom, and Kingdom Coming under my fingers pretty well now. Funny-- I have whistled Kingdom Coming all my life but never knew name of it.

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Monroe's Sideburns View Post
    ...snip...I have whistled Kingdom Coming all my life but never knew name of it.
    +1! Looking forward to playin' this one.

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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    ...and here's my take on Michael's arrangement of "Kingdom Coming" in C major. I've made one slight embellishment to the arrangement, playing most of the long C notes as E-C double stops.

    Based on the background of this tune, it seems quite appropriate for Independence Day weekend! Happy 4th!



    Michael, thanks again for posting these on the Cafe!
    Last edited by Ed Goist; Jul-03-2011 at 10:54am.
    c.1965 Harmony Monterey H410 Mandolin
    "What a long, strange trip it's been..." - Robert Hunter
    "Life is too important to be taken seriously." - Oscar Wilde
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    Default Re: Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

    Sounds great, Ed.

    To be clear, these are not my arrangements. I just put 'em on paper. The arranging credit (and my deepest gratitude) goes to Benjamin Tubb at Public Domain Music.

    I just posted The Star Spangled Banner over in Song and Tune Projects. Happy 4th!
    ~~~~~~
    Mike

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