[Robin Hickman]

GREETINGS !!!

Back in 1990 when Ken Burns' 9 part, 11 hour, historic documentary, "The Civil War" aired on PBS, its sentimentally haunting theme song, "Ashokan Farewell" became an instant classic.

Contrary to popular belief, "Ashokan Farewell", was not a "period piece" of the Civil War era, as were almost all of the other songs featured in "The Civil War" documentary. It was written by Jay Ungar in 1982.

This posting contains links to three (3) YouTube videos featuring "Ashokan Farewell". If you have time to listen to only one of them, make it the third one ("Sullivan Ballou's Letter...").

1. Jay Ungar & Molly Mason (2:59): Jay explains when & why he wrote the song, then he & Molly play it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx6dxrhqPZY


2. "Ashokan Farewell" with Civil War photo montage (4:05).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1jaUkWw9zU


3. "Sullivan Ballou's Letter To His Wife, Sarah" with a "modern" American Flag graphic (3:33). Shown at the end of Part 1 of Ken Burns' "The Civil War". The audio was taken directly from the film. I wish they would have used the video too, because looking at a 50 Star U.S. Flag is a little distracting. The film's narrator was David McCullough, and the voice of Major Sullivan Ballou (reading the letter) was Paul Roebling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aj7Qh1Uu3w



I don't quite know how to end this post, so I'll just end it.

Robin Hickman