Sebastiao Tapajos CD - Import

The Road to Richmond accommodates the many loose ends I felt I had. A few should have been on other CD's, but somehow didn't get there before they filled up. A chunk of this collection reflects my efforts in learning the "proper" knock-down, or "banjo style," used exclusively on this CD. My previous efforts were a mix of styles, all period correct, but not text-book proper. For the most part, this volume contains songs that fit important criteria besides all being authentic: I enjoy playing them, and have never recorded them. Notes on some of the songs:Marching Along, The Last Man of Beaufort, and The Seventh: These are all from Frank Moore's Songs of the Soldier's, published in 1864. Many other songs from this and my other volumes can be found there as well. Much of this book was songs sent to Mr. Moore by the soldiers themselves, with comments to the effect that these were popular with the boys. Many are regimental songs, soldier-written songs adapted to popular tunes of the day. In the case of The Seventh, the given air, Gilla Machree, has eluded me for a few years now. In the tradition of the soldiers themselves, I found an alternate, Yankee Doodle, that fit the meter of the words perfectly, and used it. This tune was often used for such songs. The opening recitation for Last Man is exactly as it was written in the book, probably published in a newspaper when it first appeared.

Tramp Tramp Tramp is the third of George Root's trilogy of all-time great songs from this war. The others, Battle Cry of Freedom and Just Before the Battle, Mother are in earlier volumes.

America is just a great old patriotic song that seems to have been fading in recent years.