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Historic Jacksonville Inc
presents the 2nd season of
Pioneer History in Story & Song
Music and American Life 1840–1880
with David Gordon
singer, guitarist, historian
Naversen Room, Jacksonville Library
340 West "C" Street (free parking!)
Jacksonville, Oregon 97530 MAP
Each 1-hour show includes 8 or 9 songs originally popular during the pioneer era (c. 1840-1880). The narration is designed to get inside the songs, place them into their historical context, and help us to connect with them in the flow of history.
These events are intimate, casual, fun, and filled with memorable music and fascinating historical background. The combination of colorful music and true stories ignites the imagination, and brings life to history.
Tickets are $5, and all proceeds go to Historic Jacksonville Inc, the tireless non-profit that produces this series and many other living history events in Jacksonville throughout the year.
Our intimate venue seats about 60, and although a few tickets are often available at the door, advance reservations are strongly recommended. It's easy. Please click here to reserve your tickets by email or phone 541-245-3650. You can even reserve a season ticket!
The 2017 Jacksonville Series — 5 Themes, 10 Concerts
(Each program is performed twice: at 2:00pm and again at 3:30pm)
Sunday, January 8
Stephen Foster - Making Music American
The first American freelance composer, and the most famous songwriter of the 19th Century, Stephen Foster died penniless in 1864 at the age of 37. David tells the story of Foster's brief life, and how he sought to create a new kind of American song. During the narration, Foster's songs are heard in the order in which he composed them, and the playlist will include Open Thy Lattice, Love; Oh, Susanna; Camptown Races; Swanee River (Old Folks at Home); My Old Kentucky Home; Hard Times Come Again No More; Some Folks; Beautiful Dreamer; and excerpts from several others.
Sunday, February 5
Music on the Oregon Trail
On the Oregon Trail, you couldn't bring much with you, but you could bring songs. During the six-month trek, music was a source of strength, hope, entertainment, and consolation. For this program, history and stories of the great western migration are interwoven with music specifically mentioned in emigrants' own diaries. These are songs the pioneers actually recalled singing and hearing as they made their way west in the 1840s and '50s, including: Wait for the Wagon; Shenandoah; The Erie Canal; The Boatman Dance; What was Your Name in the States; The Old Log Hut (Row, Row, Row); Home, Sweet Home; O, California; and more. (Reboot of last season's favorite program, with new material.)
Sunday, March 5
Newfangled Inventions
One hour of songs and stories extolling the latest mid-19th-Century inventions! 150 years ago, before radio or phonograph, songwriters published some odd but strangely uplifting songs about the velocipede (bicycle), hot air balloons, gas lights, the telegraph, the telephone, the sewing machine, baseball, leotards, and more. The playlist will include songs like: Hurrah for the National Game; The Red Stockings; Song of the Sewing Machine; Take Me Up with You Dearie; The Wondrous Telephone; The Telegraph Boy; and The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze.
Sunday, April 9
The Women Ballad Composers
In 1844, Marion Sullivan became the first American woman to write a hit song. Despite living in a time when "proper" ladies were actively discouraged from any form of public musical activity, Sullivan and other bold 19th-Century women created and published beautiful, memorable songs. This hour focusses on those female musical pioneers and their ballads, including The Blue Juniata; In the Gloaming; All Quiet Along the Potomac, Tonight; Do They Miss Me at Home; I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets ("Wildwood Flower"); and other gems.
Sunday, June 4
Pioneer Laughter
Songs can be created purely to lighten the burdens of life, and composers and poets sometimes go to great comic lengths to do so. This concert is an hour of truly goofy mid-19th-Century creations like: People Will Talk; If You Only Have a Moustache; The Overland Stage; The Wonderful Musician; The Spider and the Fly (yes, that song really does exist); plus Mark Twain's description of travelling in a stage coach, and a brief but earnest sermon on the parable of "Old Mother Hubbard."
(The songlists for this series are always subject to changes here and there, right up to the last minute, but only to make things better.)
