Thursday's Internet Edition, December 04, 2008.
and history of Hamilton County
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| FOLK SONGS AND HAMILTON HISTORY - Bob Sawyer, a resident of Hico, will present an evening of American folk songs and history of Hamilton County at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 11 at the Hamilton Civic Theater. There will be no admission charge for the event. |
A resident of Hico, he has recently been engaged to perform throughout the summer at Yellowstone National Park for the tenth consecutive year.
Sawyer said, “To develop and prepare the show, I started digging into the history or folklore of Hamilton County. I could easily see that particular folk songs were based on what was going on in people’s lives at the time the songs were popular.
Before the advent of radio and television, people in Hamilton County and all across America sang songs that told of life as it was at the time.
The connection between American folk songs and our local past brings a new dimension to our appreciation of local history. It allows listeners to look back at songs of the common person and follow the American landscape from the American Revolution days of the 49’s, settlers of the Midwest, railroaders, cowboys and farmers and get an insight into what was important in their lives.
Folk music is made up of traditional melodies and words from the ballads immigrants brought with them from far away England, Ireland and Scotland and became “Americana.” They are the same songs that the early residents of Hamilton County sang on their front porch, picnicking on the square or perhaps on the banks of the Leon River.
Admission to the event is free and everyone is encouraged to join in the celebration of Hamilton County’s sesquicentennial year.