Sing Out, Sweet Land
I don't know about you, but I do tend to spend a few weeks after the 4th July celebrations feeling very patriotic.
Maybe it's the flood of red, white and blue still decorating the neighbourhood, or the inspiring tales of our fellow Americans' valour, and folks who have accomplished something particularly heart warming.
But, it's been ten days now, and I was still feeling a real strong sense of warmth and pride in our country, when I found this terrific little show today, which made me go through a plethora of emotions - I was laughing out loud, smiling, scowling, and sometimes I even got a little tear in my eye!
The show is from the Theater Guild on the Air, and is called Sing Out, Sweet Land, a musical which was written by Walter Kerr, and is based wholly upon popular American folk songs. It teems with the sounds of the farms, the high roads, the railroads, the rivers, the mountains, and the prairies.
It's a real cavalcade of tunes starting from the puritan days and its many repressions, and going down through the revolution and the Civil War, to present times (well, present in the 1940s)! It is alive with fragrant reminders of our pioneers, our patriots and our nameless minstrels who have made our valour the finest in the world.
The hero of the show is a young man named Barnaby Goodchild, who is a legendary figure who never grows old. Barnaby is a singer with a roving eye and a restless foot, and a hankering to have a good time. He first finds himself in hot water, (or should I say the Puritan stocks) in the first scene, locked up as a public example by Parson Killjoy, condemning him to go on wandering the desolate roads singing and dancing forever.
And so begins Barnaby's adventures across the centuries, where he meets many wonderful characters, and sings many, many songs from the American folk tradition.
Admittedly, musicals aren't in my RUSC playlist very often, but this show is one that I'm really going to remember. With the amazing music, superb acting, comedy and general all-round feeling of warmth it gives you, I'd recommend you give it a listen too!
Happy listening my friends,