A DIARY OF AMERICA IN THE KEY OF C

What happens when you let yourself ride on the winds of a whim...?

In my case this meant ignoring my three daily newspapers, and instead turning on some favorite recordings. The news of America is generally sad these days, whereas the music of America is more often glad. And when you listen to it in chronological sequence, there's a story. [ I once taught an entire course in US History using only music to explore our social history; everyone liked the idea except the textbook publishers ].

Burl Ives balladeering with "Barbara Allen" and "Black is the Color of Her Hair" sings a hint of colonial damsels and three-cornered hats. "Yankee Doodle" and "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" conjure up images of farm boys with long rifles standing up to the the red formations of the original British Empire.

Unhappy is the fact that our history is rich with such martial music. Just a few generations after our freedom, we were sending our youth back into an even bloodier conflict. This one among ourselves. You can almost see the Blues and the Grays when you play "Dixie," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and "John Brown's Body." Passionate believers from both sides of the deep gash known as the Mason-Dixon Line.

But later there is the music of our expanding West, that garden myth that speaks of endless new opportunities beyond the Mississippi. "High Barbaree," "Early in the Morning" and most especially "Shenandoah." Each still speaks to the heart of any American. As does the later frontier lyrics of "Buffalo Gals," "A Roving Gambler," and the heart-pumping "John Henry."

Twentieth century America was an explosion of musical forms, but most especially musical messages. Our composers and songsters possess the magic of expressing who we are. At least who we believe we are. If you would know us in the two wars and the depression between, you must listen to -- no, feel! -- what is being sung: "Over There," "Brother Can You Spare a Dime," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anybody Else but Me," "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer," and "When the Lights Come on Again."

It's all there -- Dixie, Blues, Jazz, Pop, Rock -- all in the national key of C! Oh, what about the great music of America since WWII? Well, I guess I stopped listening as much. But in no way did the music of America stop.