Customer Reviews

A Nation's Broken Soul: Songs Of The American Civil War

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The songs selected are okay, but not great. The singer's voice is thin and unexceptional. I became very tired of his voice early on -- and there is only one vocalist. The prelude is over-long and seems somehow pompous. I highly recommend "Songs of the Civil War" by Columbia, Various Artists, instead.

David Matthews has my respect and more. For seventeen years I have been as much a passionate teacher as well as student of American history. I've outmatched a good share of folks that earned their American history noraity through four or five years of college. Their knowledge is limited to what was filtered to them from groups of others with four year degrees all belonging to the same ivy league group. The sources, including at least two hundred period ones that I have studied grope into every major event that was the cause of the War against the States, the cruel main event itself, and all its effects (that are as great now as then). I won't get into a detailed resume but will only add further that I've learned the only debate with true history is true lies. For example regardless of how anybody might feel or describe what you were doing exactly 1 minute ago nothing can change what did in fact happen then. The same is true with the period of history that this music honors. What happened during that time? What led to it? Most importantly who were the characters?

In my opinion period music is one of the greatest prophets to the past. Today the majority of students and educators alike rely on things like the Gettysburg Address or Lincoln's Inaugural addresses to decide all the questions of the War against the States. In no other period in history are a president's speeches so embraced and taken literally. The music on the other hand was in the homes not just in the White House. It was on the marches and in the battles, the real time in the past time beyond a speech given upon a battlefield months after the bodies were rid of. Music might seem an unlikely source of history in today's era. Yet in the 19th century music was the soul of not only society but the individual as well. Aside from battle music expressed why these citizens became soldiers; why they would fight, kill, or die. One simply cannot study the period surrounding the War against the States without embracing the music. This is especially the case for students of the Confederate soldier and his cause. This conclusion is based on the fact that compared to the musical background of the Northern soldiers the Confederate's song was steeped deep in personal traditions and many different backgrounds. From the Southern Irish flavored Bonnie Blue Flag or Wearing of the Gray to the mountain and African jangles like Soldier Soldier and My Old Kentucky Home Southern music defined all in the South.

To anyone that wishes to pursue the truths of what convinced Johnny Reb to dare all with Jackson or Forrest should dive into the music that sang while daring all. There are thousands of songs and poetry from the period that were published for future generations. To the dismay of the puritan they all, including all the music on this album, contradict the misleading arguments about slavery that single minded and one sided individuals use in contradiction to so many facts. In studying the material from WWII you will find a lot of antisemitic work with the Nazis. When hearing the music of the CSA you'll discover feelings for independence, self government, and most especially the defense against the crushing stage of intrusion; the yankee invasion and blockade.
This music lives not to carry or alter sediment today but rather instead understand what carried and altered the sediment of yesterday.

I do not like the title of this album though I very much like the music. During the War against the States there was 2 nations, 2 souls. In seceding from the U.S. the South declared their point that they did not share the soul of that government. The soul of the United States is Washington DC because that is where all the power of it comes from and is given to it. After the Southern states seceded the United States and it's soul in Washington went on. The only difference was that the "soul" no longer included the South. And their soul was in Richmond.
The title of this album suggests that the soul of the U.S. was broken in two. To go that way would be to also suggest that England's soul was broken in the Revolution or Mexico's in the Texas Revolution.

Nevertheless I do recommend this album. It is an emotional and honest living recollection of a history that was sang in song.

I love it and my children like it too