Music for Abraham Lincoln: Campaign Songs, Civil War Tunes, Laments for a President

Dozens of recordings have presented the stirring songs and sentimental ballads of the Civil War era. Several of these discs have even touted themselves as Abraham Lincoln s favorite music, often with little evidence to support the claims. Produced for the bicentennial of Lincoln s birth, this CD presents music that was specifically written for or about the nation s sixteenth president or that had a well-documented connection with him. The album includes 18 songs and tunes, most of them taken from the original sheet music, now part of the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana at the Library of Congress from Washington and Lincoln and the Lincoln Quadrille to Farewell Father, Friend and Guardian. The musicians include Jacqueline Schwab, whose distinctive piano playing will be immediately recognizable to anyone who has seen Ken Burns s 1990 documentary on the Civil War; hammered dulcimer player Anne Enslow; violinists Ridley Enslow and John Kirk; cellist Abby Newton; flutist Christa Patton; singers Linda Russell, Margery Cohen and Dan Berggren. Extensive liner notes. Total program time: 59:37