O Be Joyfull Is A Preservation of Old Tunes

Yesterday, I was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of a volunteer program that does work to preserve the battlefield. As part of our reward for painting barns, building fences and other things in 95 degree-weather, we were treated to a concert by Rick Garland and his lovely musical presentation O Be Joyfull. In a nutshell, O Be Joyfull is a sampler of Civil War music as well as stories behind several of the songs. But I am not here to give you a nutshell, am I?

Rick Garland has loved old songs since learning them as a kid in his hometown on the shore in New Jersey. He now makes a living being hired to make presentations and giving concerts in addition to his job as a reenactor and historian at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

Garland gave this presentation on the side porch of the Rupp House in the heart of town, while spectators sat on the lawn. He was dressed in an authentic officer’s uniform and accompanied himself on an electric piano. Because many songs had been derived from other sources, the performance had many medleys. The medleys were a tasteful combination of the actual song, its origin, and the occasional parody. The only one that was not satisfactory was that of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and “Bye Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye”, but only because the former is a song of hope for the return of a soldier and the latter is about a loved one who had been gruesomely disfigured by war. 

As previously mentioned, Garland gave an in-depth look at many of the songs. One example of this is the origin behind the famous tune “Dixie”. Daniel Emmett, the song’s composer, was stuck in his New York hotel room while a heavy storm raged outside. His wife, staring out a window, sighed and said “Oh, I wish I was Dixie”. Inspired, he jotted down the song and later submitted it to a minstrel show, who performed the song after each show. When the South seceded from the Union, Confederate president Jefferson Davis selected “Dixie” as the national anthem. Emmett became despised by loyal Northerners and forced to live abroad for the remainder of the war. He has been quoted as saying he would have never written the song had he known what would happen to it.

Overall, I enjoyed this concert very much. I would recommend that anyone with even the slightest interest in Civil War tunes make arrangements to see an upcoming performance. For more information about Rick Garland and his work, go to-

http://www.obejoyfull.com/