Top tracks
Other Traditional Folk albums
Other Bluegrass albums
Put your hands on the remote! browse music »Listen to the Mockingbird by Eight Hand String Band
view larger image
fave it Traditional Folk | Bluegrass
14 tracks | 39 minutes
Released May 2005
on Eight Hand String Band
Click
for a 30-second preview. All tracks are 192kbps high fidelity sound quality. Protected WMA $0.77 or unprotected MP3 $0.88.
listen album 30sec. shuffle buy CD review album promote album
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:45 Arkansas Traveler lyrics BUY MP3 03:45 Arkansas Traveler lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:45 Arkansas Traveler
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:19 Listen to the Mockingbird lyrics BUY MP3 02:19 Listen to the Mockingbird lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:19 Listen to the Mockingbird
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:02 Goober Peas lyrics BUY MP3 02:02 Goober Peas lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:02 Goober Peas
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:47 She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain lyrics BUY MP3 01:47 She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:47 She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:12 The Girl I Left Behind Me lyrics BUY MP3 02:12 The Girl I Left Behind Me lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:12 The Girl I Left Behind Me
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:30 Hard Times lyrics BUY MP3 03:30 Hard Times lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:30 Hard Times
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:24 Marching Through Georgia lyrics BUY MP3 03:24 Marching Through Georgia lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:24 Marching Through Georgia
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:09 Soldier's Joy lyrics BUY MP3 03:09 Soldier's Joy lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:09 Soldier's Joy
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:22 Polly Wolly Doodle lyrics BUY MP3 03:22 Polly Wolly Doodle lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:22 Polly Wolly Doodle
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:06 Dixie's Land lyrics BUY MP3 03:06 Dixie's Land lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:06 Dixie's Land
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:26 Angel Band lyrics BUY MP3 03:26 Angel Band lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:26 Angel Band
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:09 Old Joe Clark/Red Haired Boy lyrics BUY MP3 04:09 Old Joe Clark/Red Haired Boy lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:09 Old Joe Clark/Red Haired Boy
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:26 Oh! Suzanna lyrics BUY MP3 02:26 Oh! Suzanna lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:26 Oh! Suzanna
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:18 Hush Little Baby lyrics BUY MP3 01:18 Hush Little Baby lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:18 Hush Little Baby
Traditional folk and bluegrass music from the Civil War era. For the whole family. Originally recorded for use in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
Bio / Background
Liner notes for the Eight Hand String Band – Civil War era music
"I would beg to remind you that music is a very useful art."
Abraham Lincoln, 11/16/60
Entering the 19th century, the United States was a young country just beginning to develop its own cultural identity. The nation was on the move. Agricultural interests vied with growing urban areas, and the industrial revolution was altering the face of the work force. Through this turbulent time music and song provided the cultural exchange that kept people together and gave them a common language.
Beginning in the 1840s, sheet music sold like records and CDs. Lyrics were printed in sheet folios, newspapers, and broadsides. A good song could cross the country as fast as the news. And, as is true today, a timely tune could capture the spirit of a people better than a speech or a headline.
All of this growth and change came with a cost, however, and by mid-century the country had descended into civil war.
↓ more ↓Ironically, the American Civil War was a boon for composers, with 2000 songs published in the first year of the war alone. Whether in camp or at home, on the march or in the field, everybody sang or played. Brass bands, string quartets, soldiers on picket, and sewing bees performed martial airs, patriotic choruses, and sentimental melodies.
“I don’t know what we would have done without our band,” wrote a member of the 24th Massachusetts in 1862. “Every night about sun down Gilmore gives us a splendid concert, playing selections from the operas and some pretty good marches, quicksteps, waltzes and the like.”
It is often thought that the old South had the best tunes, but there was nothing in the Southern songbook to compare with the great Northern marching songs. “Good martial music is one of the advantages we have over the rebels,” proclaimed an editorial in the New York Herald, January 11, 1862.
After the war, at a gathering in Richmond, a Confederate major agreed: “Gentleman, if we had your songs, we’d have licked you out of your boots.”
The recordings on this CD are a reflection of the moods that moved America in the formative years of our nation. In interpreting this 19th century music, the Eight Hand String Band has taken our historic folk songs and rendered them into classics. They’ve made a synthesis of songs readily familiar to us, yet individually distinct in their voices, and have presented them as a pastiche of our national character.
Children will recognize nursery rhymes while their grandparents will recall old hymns. Everyone will tap their feet. Whether showcasing the pop songs of Stephen Foster, or show-boating their bluegrass chops on reels like “Old Joe Clark,” the Eight Hand String Band plays in a loose style, inviting inspiration and invention, giving the listener the feel of how this music is meant to be heard – live.
So, stick this relic of bygone days into your digital listening device of choice, step back, and enjoy yourself some old-style.
***
↑ less ↑




