American history in song

BLUFFTON — Anyone who attends one of the America 250 concerts presented by John Jantzen and Wendy Chappell-Dick will hear songs that were popular from colonial times to the Civil War. They will also learn some fascinating history. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," for example, was one of the de facto national anthems of the United States from 1831 when it was published until the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the official U.S. national anthem in 1931, according to Chappell-Dick. Marian Anderson performed the song at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939. Anderson, an African American singer, had been forbidden to perform at the DAR Constitution Hall due to its whites-only policy. After a national outcry, and with support from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the event was held on the steps of the memorial and attracted a crowd of more than 75,000. "It's a beautiful song," she said. Jantzen and Chappell-Dick's first event is from 2-3:30 p.m. Saturday in front of Bluffton Presbyterian Church's main entrance, 112 N. Main St. It is free to attend. "For Bluffton, this is new," she said. "We do not usually have a Fourth of July celebration so it's exciting for us. This is all because of the 250." The two musicians are both self-taught and play guitar and the spoons. Chappell-Dick also performs on the dulcimer and does most of the singing. "His wife told me he was a good guitarist, so that got my attention and we started playing music together because we both wanted to learn about jazz," Chappell-Dick recalled. Around January, she suggested that they try a different style of music. "I knew the 250 was coming up and just in brainstorming songs I got it in my head that we could learn 50 songs for America 250," she said. Their deadline was July 4. Popular in America from colonial times to the Civil War, these are songs of immigrants, Native Americans and enslaved African Americans about life, faith, work and play. "It's a little bit flexible because we have some fiddle tunes we're weaving in, too," said Chappell-Dick. "So it's a little over 50, but some songs fall away, too, so we always have to have some in our back pocket." Performing 50 songs and telling a bit of history takes about three hours. "That's a really long gig so we're not going to be able to perform all of them each time," Chappell-Dick said. She said three seperate concerts are planned at the Bluffton Public Library, and the songs there will be divided into three groups. "That way we can take our time and talk about the songs because it's so interesting to learn a bit about the history. It will be nice to have that luxury of not just hurrying on to the next one," she said. They have been strict about sticking to songs that are older than the Civil War. "Ideally we'd like to get songs that were sung around the Revolutionary War time period in colonial America. They don't all have to be written there, but we want them to have been sung," Chappell-Dick said. "We're pulling from sources like 'Little House on the Prairie' which takes place in a later time period, so we're drawing a circle from the Civil War to the Revolutionary War and sticking with that." Some of the songs they've learned date back to the 1500s but were sung and popular during Colonial Times, she said. Jantzen said he added a few tunes to the list, but Chappell-Dick is responsible for most of the music. She found some by doing research. Others she learned in elementary school. "That's where you learn songs like 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' or 'America the Beautiful.' They're instilling a sense of national identity and pride in those kinds of contexts, and it worked because I still have those in my mind, still remember them," she said. While people tended to sing folk songs to children, they were not always for children, she said. "They were to play at parties, to play at dances. There was a lot of humor in the music of the time because that was the entertainment," she explained. "There's some nonsense going on, a little bit of shenanigans. And that's all in the song which is fun." Another source of music came from hymns. "We are mixing some Revolutionary-era hymns, and it's very interesting," said Chappell-Dick. "One of our songs is 'I Know That my Redeemer Liveth,' and it was published right after the Revolutionary War by an English Naval officer who had been injured, had a near-death experience and had a conversion," she recounted. "But that song became very popular in America with revival tent singing." Their repertoire also includes "Frog Went a-Courting." "I think this is a cautionary tale of anyone obsessing over their wedding," she laughed. "This song is Scottish. It's from 1548, and there were literally hundreds of variations and verses." She said she was surprised to learn that it had been recorded by Bob Dylan. They tried to include songs from immigrant groups that came to this country. And, when possible, they learned a little bit of the language, Chappell-Dick said. "So we have several bits of French. We have some Italian. We have some German. We learned a Native American song and some African American spirituals, even a song from the West Indies which of course Hamilton was from the West Indies. So that's been kind of a neat part of the project is incorporating those," she said. One song they will sing is titled "What Wondrous Love Is This," a Christian folk hymn from the American South. "Come to find out it's a sea shanty about pirates called 'The Ballad of Captain Kidd," she said. "We know it as a very nice hymn." "So learning about the background of these has really been part of the delight. And for us, what better way could we think of to celebrate 250 years of this grand experiment called America than through all the songs," Chappell-Dick said. Other concerts scheduled include: July 19 — Little Riley Creek Farm, 1-5 p.m. Aug. 20 (part 1) — Bluffton Public Library, 6:30-7:15 p.m. Aug. 29 — Play Music on the Porch Day. Sept. 17 (part 2) — Bluffton Public Library, 6:30-7:15 p.m. Sept. 26 — Fall Festival at the Schumacher Homestead Oct. 15 (part 3) — Bluffton Public Library, 6:30-7:15 p.m. They will also perform at local senior living facilities.