Lincoln's America Judy Cook

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1) HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE (Tune - S. Foster) 0:31 
The poignancy of this song made it a favorite during the Civil War. It seems a fitting way to begin, for Lincoln surely saw hard times in his youth and in his Presidency. I play fragments of the tune at the beginning and end of the CD.

2) HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY (w: S.Woodworth / t: G.Colman) 5:02  Lyrics
The hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory), used this song for both of his Presidential campaigns. It uses the tune of Miss Bailey’s Ghost. The tune appears in George Colman’s 1803 play Love Laughs at Locksmiths.

3) HOUSEWIFE'S LAMENT (Traditional USA) 4:05  Lyrics 
The words of this song were found in the diary of Mrs. Sarah Price of Ottawa, IL in the mid-19th Century. I learned it from Bill Day of Wheaton, MD.

4) BLUE TAIL FLY (Tune. Attributed to D.Emmett) 0:50  Lyrics 
Lincoln referred to The Blue Tail Fly as "That buzzing song." It was one of the songs that could cheer him when he was feeling sad.

5) THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE (Traditional, NC) 3:30  Lyrics
I got this from the singing of both Sheila Kay Adams and Bobby McMillon, two traditional singers from western NC. I chose my favorite verses from the many I’ve heard them sing.

6) GLENDY BURKE (Stephen Foster) 2:19  Lyrics 
Between the time Abe Lincoln was five to twenty-five, the number of steamboats arriving in New Orleans went from 20 to 1200 a year. By 1860 steamboats were at their most popular. The Glendy Burke was a real steamboat built in 1851.

7) HOOSEN JOHNNY (Traditional) 2:11  Listen
This nonsense song was popular on the 8th judicial circuit in central IL where Lincoln practiced law. Carl Sandburg’s American Songbag suggests that at one time when good news was received, court was adjourned and judge, lawyers, jury, and spectators paraded around the public square singing it in their joy

8) GET OFF THE TRACKE (Hutchinson / Emmett) 2:39  Lyrics 
Jesse Hutchinson used the tune to COld Dan Tucker", and wrote words urging church and statesmen to clear the way for emancipation.

9) OH! SUSANNA (Tune - Stephen Foster) 0:32 
The song was a favorite with the ‘49ers who went to California during the great gold rush that swept America when Lincoln was 40 years old.

10) DAYS OF '49(Charlie Bensell) 3:55  Lyrics 
Charles Bensell a.k.a. Charley Roades (d.1877) probably wrote the original as a minstrel song about some of the colorful characters of the gold fields. It was collected in a songster in the 1850's by John A. Stone a.k.a. Old Put. The tune and some words come from "Yankee John" Galusha, adapted by Warners and Lomaxes. Thanks to George Stephens from whom I first heard it.

11) HI RALLY, HO RALLY (Marsh /Foster) 2:01  Lyrics 
In the 1860 Presidential campaign, Lincoln’s running mate was Maine senator Hannibal Hamlin. This song was published in The Wide-Awake Vocalist or Rail Splitters' Song Book: Words and Music for the Republican Campaign of 1860.

12) GRAFTED INTO THE ARMY(Henry Clay Work) 2:23  Lyrics 
Both poignant and funny, this song is full of deliberate malapropisms including using grafted instead of drafted. This is an especially clever play on words because of the practice of allowing money to be substituted for service during the Civil War. .

13) LORENA (TUNE) (Joseph Webster) 0:55 
This tune was written for the immensely sentimental poem by Henry Webster. The song became one of the most popular songs of the day.

14) RICHMOND IS A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL (Thompson / Emmett) 5:44  Lyrics
John Thompson published this poem in his magazine The Southern Literary Messenger in 1863. The war was still going fairly well for the South; and Dan Emmett's minstrel song, "Jordan Am A Hard Road to Travel" was very popular. The song details six failed attempts to take the Southern capital. Thanks to Andy Wallace for passing this along to me.

15) RING THE BELL WATCHMAN (Henry Clay Work) 2:18  Lyrics 
The tune to this joyful chorus song has been used for later popular songs, including “Click Go The Shears” from Australia, and “Strike the Bell Second Mate” from the age of sail.

16) BOOTH KILLED LINCOLN (Anonymous) 4:03  Lyrics
Abraham Lincoln died April 15, 1865 after being shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth. Bascomb Lamar Lunsford, "The Minstrel of the Appalachians", learned this moving song from his father, and recorded it in 1949. I learned it from Tom Gibney.

17) YOUR MISSION (Sidney Martin Grannis) 2:02  Lyrics 
In January 1863, Lincoln attended the annual meeting of the US Christian Commission. He heard this song sung by Philip Phillips, and was so moved by it that he wrote on his program, "Near the close let us have ‘Your Mission’ repeated by Mr. Philips- Don't say I called for it". From John Lair’s Songs Lincoln Loved.

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