Happy Veterans Day

Veterans Day in Nashville

 

 

     It is a picture perfect day here in Nashville. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for the annual Veteran's Day Parade down Broadway.

Along with my 'fellow' Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) I decorated and boarded our float as we set out to bless, wave, sing and encourage fellow patriots along the hour and a half parade route.

 

From our DAR float at the start of the parade heading down to the Cumberland River the famous, old Union Station graces the skyline:

 

 







Abe Linclon stopped to chat

 

Headed down Broadway

 

 

 

 

 

DAR float beginning at The Parthenon in Centennial Park



Our soldiers

 

It was an inspirational and wonderful way to give back to our servicemen and our beautiful city.

 

Happy Veterans Day along the Trails of Tennessee.....

 

 



Abigail Adams Goes To School

Along the trails of Tennessee, tomorrow morning at 10:30 I will share my award-winning song Be Like Abigail (Ode to Abigail Smith Adams) with a delightful class of third graders at one of Nashville's premier elementary schools. I was invited by a teacher friend of mine to share Abigail with her students. How fun!

As you may know, women of Abigail's generation - The Revolutionary War era (1776) - were denied formal education in favor of domestic responsibilities. Among her plethora of honors (one being the wife of John Adams, first vice-president and second President of the United States) I know Mrs. Adams would be pleased to be heralded as a patriotic woman of valor, and heroine of The American Revolution to a wide-eyed group of seven year olds. What a wonderful opportunity to plant patriotic seeds into the hearts and minds of our children.

I will include pictures of "Abigail Adams Goes To School" after tomorrow's adventure. Stay tuned...which, btw, is the mantra of any self-respecting musician :)

 

 

Tales From The Trails: Adventures in Washington, D.C. and More

 

We just returned from Washington, D.C. and Daughters of the American Revolution 122nd Continental Congress where my song, Be Like Abigail, won the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution American Heritage Music Composition Award. It was an honor and privilege to write a song about about one of the most beloved women in Americanhistory --- wife of our second United States president, John Adams, and mother of our sixth president, John Quincy Adams --- the one and only Abigail Smith Adams. Please click on the Be Like Abigail link and give my song a listen. I think you'll like it!

 

With barely enough time to catch our breath, we repacked and left for North Carolina.  I am sitting in a room at the Jackson County Library in Sylva, N.C. where we have our family summer home.

 

Below, my husband, Bruce, and me at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in D.C. after receiving my award.

 

 

"Be Like Abigail" - Winner of DAR 2013 American Heritage National Music Composition Contest!

As a Daughter of the American Revolution, Fort Nashborough Chapter, established along the trails of Tennessee, I am pleased to announce my song " Be Like Abigail (Ode To Abigail Smith Adams) " won the National Society DAR American Heritage National Music Composition Award! I received a lovely letter of congratulations from our DAR National Music Chairman, Shirley Brown, April 24th.

 



I must say, I had a very good feeling about this particular song. Although music is subjective, I sensed it would win. I was right! I thank God for the gifts and talents He gives me.

Through my study of Abigail Adams, patriot, and wife of  John Adams our first vice-president and second president of The United States, as well as mother of John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, I have become more acutely aware of the blood, sweat and tears shed from members of the original thirteen Colonies to wrest from the clutches of the British our beautiful land we call America. Freedom was not handed to these men and women who sacrifificed, life and limb, family, friends and finances to establish this land of the free and the home of the brave.

It's an honor and privilege to travel to Washington, D.C. the week of June 24, during the 122nd Continental Congress - which Abigail's husband, John, along with 55 other partriots initiated in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia September 5, 1774,  to be presented with an award for my song, "Be Like Abigail." All categories in the Arts will be on display at Constitution Hall in the DAR Museum.

I am forever grateful to Abigail Adams and a host of other women and wives, who assisted our Founding Fathers while they traveled back and forth overseas for "The Cause," literally "holding down the fort" (tending to hearth and home, including hosting dinner parties, thereby, insisting the men come together for civilized conversation) thus "helping keep our fragile new nation from falling into fatal partisan discord. "These women made the men behave." (quote from Founding Mothers, by Cokie Roberts (c) 2004.)

I am deeply and forever grateful to my Revolutionary War patriot, Samuel Sunderlin, who was a private, first class in the Continental Army, maybe under George Washington. I plan further research in the DAR Library in Washington, D.C.

 



"Be Like Abigail (Ode to Abigal Smith Adams)"

Whether biblical or historical, some of my favorite songs to write are songs I research.  In 1979, while singing on Nantucket Island, I took it upon myself to visit to the whaling museum to research a song I was working on. My song, eventually entitled Hard to Leave the Island, is chock full of Nantucket Island history set to music. In 1980, some of the faculty of USF in Ft. Myers, Florida who used to come listen to me sing and play my guitar at a fabulous out-door venue asked me to write a song about Sanibel Island. Having spent time on Sanibel (and Captiva), it was my pleasure to dig in and put its history to music simply called Sanibel Island. The Sanibel Island Chamber of Commerce contracted the song from me as "on-hold-music" for their telephone system until Hurricane Andrew almost wiped the island off the map. Thirty years later (2010), I was inspired when, at a Donelson Hermitage Chamber of Commerce luncheon, the Tennesse Dept of Tourist Development showed a video about their "Trails" initative highlighting a "get off the interstates and travel the backroads of Tennessee." Hence, I felt compelled to write Trails of Tennessee. I could hardly scratch the words and melody out quickly enough. I think Trails of Tennessee is my favorite of all my "place" songs, probably because I live here and love here - my husband grew up in Donelson and I married him here. I never could really get the hang of  "country" music. While I grew up listening to all kinds of music and made a living playing it for many years, I just couldn't believe life is all heart break and betrayal. I certainly don't want to sing about this. I always knew there something more... and I was right! His name is Jesus!
   
Recently, I was invited by my Fort Nashborough Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) to write a song for The American Heritage Committee. The theme is: Invest in the Future - Creating Family Heirlooms. I chose to write a song about Abigail Smith Adams, "Be Like Abigal." Abigail Adams was reared in a Christian home in Braintree (now Quincy) Massachusetts. She taught herself to read and write in a day when women were regarded as not needing formal education. Abigail was not just a generation ahead of her time, but centuries ahead of her time. She taught herself French and Latin and then taught her children. She wrote letters daily, leaving more than 2,ooo of them, now in historical archives, for us to read. The articulate correspondence between Abigail and her husband, John, is a legendary love story. I could go on and on.....and do in my song.

 

I believe I captured the musical essence of the Revolutionary War era using my 12-string guitar, the bass, fiddle and mandolin of studio musician Jason Roller, the simple snare drum sounds of Paul Scholten, and my vocal track. Lyrically, I captured Abigail's sacrificial love and service to our country and support of her husband, our first vice - president and second President of the United States, John Adams, and mother of our sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. I demoed the song at County Q Studio here in Nashville and will share it at the next DAR luncheon.  I believe Abigail would love her song. President John Adams would be delighted and son John Q. would be pleased! I'll supply a link to the song later this month.



Happy Thanksgiving

Along The Trails of Tennessee!

We have so much to be thankful for along the Trails of Tennessee! Tennessee is rich in an abundance of Fall harvest produce including the ubiquitous and versatile Tennessee Sweet Potato.  To celebrate the auspicious veggie, I prepared Tennessee Sweet Potato Pudding for our Thanksgiving dessert.

           In a popular 19th and 20th century seed catalog, the Tennessee Sweet Potato was praised as the best for pie, which was confirmed in the 1918 listing from The Great Northern Seed Company; "A magnificent pear-shaped variety of fine size, a little ribbed; color creamy white, sometimes striped with green. When cooked it has somewhat the appearance of sweet potatoes, but of more delicious taste; Flesh thick, creamy white, remarkably fine grained, dry and brittle, hardy and productive and keeps perfectly sound until late in the spring."

Enjoy my delicious adaptation of an old Tennessee treat!

Tennessee Sweet Potato Pudding

You'll need:

2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Dash of salt

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

2 Tablespoons sugar (or, *Stevia in the Raw)

2 eggs, separated

Vegetable cooking spray

3/4 *unsweetened orange juice

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Directions:

Combine sweet potato, brown sugar, butter and eggs yolks in a large bowl; stir well. Gradually add orange juice, nutmeg and cloves; stir well. Set aside. Beat eggs whites (at room temp.) until foamy; add salt and beat until soft peaks form. Add sugar, beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into sweet potato mixture. Pour mixture into a 1-1/2 quart baking dish coated with cooking spray; place in a large shallow pan. Add hot water to a larger pan to a depth of 1 inch. Place casserole dish into the larger hot water pan. Bake at 350 degress until the center is set and edges are browned. Remove dish from water; let cool 15 minutes or refrigerate before serving. Serve with whipped topping and nuts. Serves 6-8.

*Author's note: Stevia is an all-natural, zero calorie sweetener derived from the leafy green foliage of the Stevia plant, native to South America. It measures cup for cup the same as sugar and is a healthy substitute.



                                      Civil War Encampment

I am so excited to be blogging again.......along the Trails of Tennessee! My blog was not working, and well, life happens. But much has transpired between then and now. For the past year I have been working on a book proposal, with award-winning photographer, Jeffrey Stoner, based on Trails of Tennessee, the song. More about this later as the saga continues to unfold.

My husband, Bruce, and I were shopping for winter pansies at The Farmer's Market near the beautiful Bi-Centennial Mall in downtown Nashville recently and were startled by a loud " KA-BOOM!" across the way. As we followed the sound, we discovered Civil War cannons were being fired during a Civil War Encampment with re-enactors dressed in full period regalia. These period costumes made us feel as though we had stepped back in time. Our conversations were present tense as the re-enactors explained the realities and hardships of war, their water and food in short supply, and the loves, lives and deaths of our union and confederate soldiers............along the Civil War trails of tennessee.



Musicians came along side our soldiers to bring a smile to their faces, a 'tap' to their toes, and remind them of home.

Cookin' up "supper" for the soldiers.

 

This "brick" of black tea was used for medicinal purposes as well for drinking........... along the Civil War trails of Tennessee.