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Formats and Editions
1. Camptown Races
2. Yankee Doodle With Variations
3. Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair
4. Injun Rubber Overcoat
5. We've A Million In The Field
6. Vmi Quickstep
7. Jenny Get Your Hoe Cake Done
8. Briggs Jig
9. Grafted Into The Army
10. Frank Converse Jig
11. Ring, Ring The Banjo
12. Van Bramer's Jig
13. Carve Dat Possum
14. Dr. Hekok Jig
15. Few Days
16. In The Arms Of Abraham
17. The Invalid Corps
18. Oh! Susanna
More Info:
Unpacking the Past is Home Front's latest exploration into mid 19th-century popular music, featuring material associated with early blackface minstrelsy, the American civil war era, and the post-war period. The purpose of this recording is not to reinforce a narrow sense of sentimentality, nostalgia, or nationalism. Rather, we chose these pieces because they provide evidence of the dominant attitudes, life experiences, and the soundscape of a pivotal time in American history. We do not believe that 19th-century living should be considered 'the good old days' or 'a simpler time,' but a time when Americans -rich and poor, enslaved and free- were filled with uncertainty, competing to survive within rapidly changing environments. Many of the dominant attitudes of the period are captured in songs that still have the power to inspire, offend, or enlighten, based on music that could be (by any standards) racist, inequitable toward women, and discriminatory. With this preface, we ask a single question: in the 21st century, is it possible to inclusively and critically unpack these chapters of America's musical past? If so, listeners should be prepared to take pause and reflect on the multiple meanings behind this music. Unpacking the Past is the second release of the group in it's current four-member configuration. Home Front is a group of musicians from Pennsylvania and Maryland who perform authentic American civil war era music in period style. Historians as well as musicians, their hallmark is respect for historical accuracy. Track notes for recorded songs include the source and what we know about the song's place in history. Home Front strives to recreate the look, sound and feelings of a bygone era, transporting their audiences through time and blurring the line between education and entertainment. Find their website under homefrontmusic and learn more.
