Music review: *The Civil War Musical

I was excited to bring this CD home from the library.  I like music, especially musicals.  I also like stories of the civil war.  I had also heard good things about this musical.  However I must admit that it left me a little disappointed.  Maybe my expectations were too high.

I really enjoyed the poetry, the stories and the histories.  It was the music where I was disappointed.  It didn't capture he spirit of the Civil War for me.  It seems it was more the country singer, or the blues singer, singing of the war and the period, but not true characters, and that is what makes a good musical, the characters.

Yes, it had its intriguing stories.  The husband writing to his wife just before he faces battle and is killed, the struggle of the slave to be free, the glory and the pain of war.  But the music was too modern.  I would have preferred more period type music.  It seems it was trying to mimic Les Miserables in some aspects, in others it was a country ballad and others soul, but never figuring out its own identity.

Some parts were very moving, especially the poetry:
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise.
Up from a past rooted in pain
I rise.
Dr Maya Angelou's words are very moving ; as are those of Frederick Douglas.
Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be
Where liberty is, there slavery cannot be
The contest must be decided, and decided forever...

These words made me stop and think.  I have always felt our country did wrong in supporting slavery, and then civil rights abuses; but at the same time I always sympathized with the South, the underdog.  I realized that any government that supported the institution of slavery had to fail.  As Frederick Douglas pointed out, there is no liberty where there is slavery.  The slave holders where also prisoners of an economic system that should have long been abolished.

There are a couple of other key moments of dialogue.  President Lincoln reading the Bixby letter, made famous by the movie "Saving Private Ryan."  "I pray that Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement."  Mrs Bixby lost five sons in the war.  The words of General Joshua Chamberlain, who as a General accepted the surrender of the Confederate arms at Appomattox, but when he was a Colonel was assigned to defend the Union left flank at Gettysburg.  If the left flank had folded, the Union line would have folded, and the outcome of the battle would have been different.  When the ammunition of his men was exhausted, instead of sounding retreat he called for a charge.  This one stroke of military genius likely changed the outcome of the war.  He is quoted as saying, "In great deed something abides."  I think that is why the Civil War fascinates me.  There were many great deeds in that war on both sides.

There are some songs that I enjoy.  Amy Grant and Bryan White singing "With these Hands" is very moving.  The concluding song "The Glory" also touches a cord.  However, to me, the music leaves something to be desired.  I was looking for more a stories of the men and women, with period music.  I could not recommend this CD.