Taking part in this week’s Song Lyric Sunday has presented me with a different challenge from recent weeks. Unlike then, my problem isn’t working out what the genre is but whittling down a large number of possibilities to just one song to play you. This week’s challenge, as set out in Jim’s post, Appalachian Mountain Music, is to play a bluegrass song and this is a style of music I really like. Several names of younger acts came to mind, like Sierra Hull, the superb Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra (from that traditional home of bluegrass – Norway), or maybe Billy Strings, but I finally settled on a guy who I’ve played often, as he is a particular favourite of mine. He isn’t exclusively a bluegrass artist – I think he would probably fit best into country rock/Americana bags – but has given us many bluegrass tunes in his career. In 1998 he made an entire album with one of the stalwarts of the genre, and I’m giving you a tune from that:

And the lyrics, which are a kind of fictitious history lesson:

I am Kilrain and I’m a fightin’ man
And I come from County Clare
And the Brits would hang me for a Fenian
So I took my leave of there
And I crossed the ocean in the Arrianne
The vilest tub afloat
And the captain’s brother was a railroad man
And he met us at the boat

So I joined up with the 20th Maine
Like I said my friend I’m a fighting man
And we’re marchin’ south in the pouring rain
And we’re all goin’ down to Dixie…

I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine
And we fight for Chamberlain
‘Cause he stood right with us when the Johnnies came
Like a banshee on the wind
When the smoke cleared out of Gettysburg
Many a mother wept
For many a good boy died there, sure
And the air smelled just like death

I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine
And I’d march to hell and back again
For Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
We’re all goin’ down to Dixie…

I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine
And I damn all gentlemen
Whose only worth is their father’s name
And the sweat of a workin’ man
Well we come from the farms and the city streets
And a hundred foreign lands
And we spilled our blood in the battle’s heat
Now we’re all Americans

I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine
And did I tell you friend I’m a fightin’ man
And I’ll not be back this way again
‘Cause we’re all goin’ down to Dixieland

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Steve Earle

Dixieland lyrics © Wb Music Corp.

As you can see from the video, that was a track on the album The Mountain, a collaborative effort by Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band, which was released in February1999, peaking at #133 in the main US albums chart, at #19 in the country albums listings and at #14 in the Canadian country version. It wasn’t a hit over here in the UK though. As with every other album that he has made, I bought it and played it to bits. It was Steve’s first album to contain just bluegrass music, and was made as a kind of tribute to Bill Monroe, the acknowledged founder of the genre, who had died in 1996. I said that this was fictitious: whilst the sentiments expressed in the song fit with Steve’s politics and view on life, Kilrain, the protagonist, was never a real person. Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, on the other hand, was: he was a college professor from Maine who volunteered during the Civil War to join the Union Army, and became a highly respected and decorated officer, eventually reaching the rank of brigadier general. He is best known for his gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honour. Sgt Buster Kilrain does exist in a way, though, as a character in the 1993 movie Gettysburg, which seems to have provided some of the inspiration behind this song. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the factual arguments, though, I don’t really care: it is a great song on which I’m still word perfect after all these years!

I should mention the Del McCoury Band too, as they have been part of bluegrass music in one form or another since 1967. They are still going strong and making new music. As a bonus extra tune for today, this video of one of their collaborations was released a couple of weeks ago, though it was actually recorded back in 2017:

The reason I know when that was recorded is that another video from the session was released back then. It was of their version of the Buffalo Springfield song For What It’s Worth, and it is superb. You can find it here if you want to have a listen. I mentioned Sierra Hull earlier: she is the female in this band playing mandolin, her specialty. Sierra was a child prodigy, releasing her first album at the age of 10, and has gone on to have a successful career in music, which has included several awards and an appearance at the White House playing with Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski back in 2011. You haven’t seen it? OK, here’s another link for you. Alison Krauss is another I thought about for this week’s theme, and Dan as the singer in the Soggy Bottom Boys was also a possibility, but I really think I should stop now: two songs and two links to others might be seen as pushing it a bit!

I’m really looking forward to seeing what others choose for today, as I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy the music a lot. Have a great day, and I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊🎶