TILL RICHMOND BURNS, written and performed by Daniel Davis English, Lionheart, 462 Candler Park Drive, Atlanta, GA 30307-2113, $19.95 plus $5.95 for shipping.
In the early 1980s, Daniel Davis English began researching his family history, particularly the Confederate history. He had plenty to learn about: six of his great-great-grandfathers fought in the war. Some 20 years later, English, a lifelong musician and songwriter, has emerged from his work with a CD full of traditional-style American folk songs about the Civil War.
“Josephine” is the song with the closest tie to his research efforts; almost all the words from the song were lifted from letters exchanged by his great-great-grandfather William and great-great-grandmother Josephine. William died of typhoid in September 1861, after only a few months away at war. But English finds that it was the weekly letters from Josephine that kept William going before he succumbed to the fever.
The best of the 14 Civil War songs on English’s CD is “Till Richmond Burns.” It is the story a son tells to his mother about his father, a soldier who fought outside Richmond in April 1865 to delay the much larger force of advancing Yankees and give the citizens time to evacuate safely. The son is out on the battlefield with his father until the father sends him home. The son reports to his mother: He said, “Tell your mom I love her. / Hug your little brother. / Take care of each other.” / And he said in no uncertain terms, / “You must take these lessons you have learned. / Break free and clear. / And get away from here. / And I will hold them off ’til Richmond burns.”
There are a few light songs on the CD–but the mood is generally dark. That’s not because English smothers his songs with gloom, but because the subject matter tends to set a somber tone. English actually shows great care in keeping a work about an emotionally wrenching ordeal like war from slipping hopelessly into an abyss of sentimentality. His arrangements help, sparse and raw as they are, with him singing over a simple acoustic guitar accompaniment. But it’s his deft handling of lyrics that give these recordings their real strength. English conveys his ideas through stories, moving tales about real people. It’s not hard to picture English sitting beside a company campfire the night before a battle, singing for his comrades. Songs about wartime were cathartic for the troops. So, too, for their descendants.
Carl Zebrowski
