An American Songline

Journeys in Vintage Music with Cecelia Otto

Main navigation

Blog

Seek and ye shall find

by

Happy Leap Day to all!

In the last month, I’ve been contacting historical societies in various states along the Lincoln Highway not only to let them know about the project, but to also see if they had any concert/recital programs from 1913-1935.  I’ve had some tremendous results thank to the following agencies:

The Wyoming State Historical Society and The Wyoming State Archives came through with flying colors and I now have close to 50 pages of programs from this era.  They also recommended a link I thought I would share with you history buffs, “The Wyoming Newspaper Project”. I spent hours (and could spend more hours) looking at all of the newspapers that were transferred online from microfiche.  You not only can search by keyword, but also by pattern and concept.  You can print anything from this website as well-all free of charge!

Nebraska’s Historical Society also had a few great finds, including a souvenir program that had music for a song called “Let Me Stray” from the Grand Island Capitol Theatre.  I can’t find any modern recordings of this song, so I’m looking forward to debuting it on the road next year.

And last but not least, here’s the fun find for today.  The Utah State Archives found a program from 1930 of the operetta “Naughty Marietta”, and noted two songs were performed: “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” and “My Heart is Back in Napoli” (we know the latter as “Italian Street Song”.  At first I didn’t know these songs, but when I played them back, my first memories of these songs from watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons as a kid.  Sad but true.

Today’s video is a hilarious interpretation of “Italian Street Song”.  She even stays in tune while everything falls in around her.  Enjoy!

Song of the week: “Love Me or Leave Me”

by

Hi folks!  I was off last week after an unexpected back injury.  I’m doing much better now, and I’m back to post my “Song of the week”.

“Love Me or Leave Me” is one of my favorites from this time period.  It’s been used in many different ways over the years, and usually it’s been performed in 4 at a much slower tempo.  While it sounds fine at that tempo, it actually was written in 2. For all the non-musicians out there, this is more of a “dance” tempo which was typical of 1920’s music.  I’ve actually liked singing it at the faster tempo, and will more than likely perform it on the road in this way.

Here’s a great recording from 1929 of the song in this faster tempo sung by Scrappy Lambert (I love that name).  It’s fun to also see the old Victrola in this video as well.

Enjoy!

Song of the Week: “Golden Gate”

by

Hi everyone!

Still plugging away on the recital and general research for anything and everything American Songline.  Before too much time gets away from me, I thought I would post one of the songs that I’ll be doing for the concerts in 2013.

This week’s song: “Golden Gate”, which was one of the biggest hits of 1928. Here is Al Jolson’s recording of the song, featuring some great pictures of San Francisco from the period.

If this doesn’t pep you up on this Monday, I don’t know what will!

 

Fashions and Figures

by

So since my last post I’ve been poking around looking at the presentation aspect of performance. How will I present myself to concert goers? I’m not really a girly person, but I do want to look my best for you all when I’m out on the road.

I’ll be singing music from a 25 year period in the early 20th century (1913-1935), but for women’s fashion there were huge changes.  The 1910’s saw corsets give way to more fitted but longer dresses.  In the 1920’s skirt hemlines shrank, hair was bobbed, and clothing had long lines to show more of a “boyish” appearance.  The 1930’s brought some middle ground of sorts-hair and hemlines grew a little longer, and curves were back in.  All within a generation.

Looking at vintage fashions and fabrics online, one thing is clear for me:  I will have to have whatever I wear built from scratch with non-synthetic fabrics (wool, silk, cotton).  I cannot fit into anything historical-period.  My 21st century frame of 5’10” (1.77 meters) puts me at least two inches taller (5cm) than the average man, and 6-8 inches taller (15-20cm) than the average woman of the time in America.  I don’t even have to look into the weight part of it.

I’m not going to change costumes several times during a performance to show off these differences-this is not a Vegas show! I want to wear just one dress for each show, and have a backup dress to wear in case one is at the cleaners.

So I’ve got a few ideas, and I’m taking your input.  What do you all think of these fashions?  Would you feel weird/annoyed seeing someone sing something from 1932 that’s wearing a dress from 1916, or vice versa?  While I will ultimately decide what to use, I would love feedback.  The “non-girly” side of me needs your opinion.

Here’s some links to follow for fashion ideas if you don’t know the periods well:

The 1910’s

1917 Cocktail/Evening Dress

1916 Traveling Dress

The 1920’s

1925 Dress Suit

1921 Garden Dress

The 1930’s

1935 Evening Dress

1932 Fitted Dress “Suit”

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!  Thanks!

Happy New Year!

by

Don’t we wish that all aspects of life had a place like this?

Hi Everyone!

I am back after a few months of leave, and I am glad to be writing again. Thanks for all of your patience. Unfortunately, life doesn’t resolve issues as quickly as we would like them to be resolved. As you saw in my last post, I came home after the Buy-Way weekend to find my house robbed.  These thefts in our lives did not stop after that initial incident; we had two other incidences occurring within two months after the August robbery.  These three events left my husband and I pretty battered and world-weary to say the least.

The concept of trust as a whole for me was shaken to its core. The quote, “You take the good with bad,” really was true this time.  It was very hard to reconcile the good of the last Lincoln Highway trip when I came home to something so devastating.  I’ll admit, I was pretty fearful of doing anything with this travelogue.  My basic primal fear was that if I left again to do research again, something bad would happen again.  Period.  I know it seems silly, but that’s how I felt for a while after the thefts.

I knew that I had to let go of all of this in a healthy way, so I went up north on retreat before the holidays, sat with all of emotions of these events along with other events from the last 12 months (including the unexpected death of my father before my wedding), and got my emotions back in check.  Grief and loss (including loss of security) is part of everyone’s life, and I know it will never go away fully.  The key is to not let the emotions control you of course, but it’s easier said then done.

The last few months have been all behind the scenes work for the journey in 2013. I have been finalizing and rehearsing the concert program you will all hear in 2013. I have been sitting in dusty stacks of sheet music for hours, and pouring over old programs to see what singers performed from 1913-1930.  Some of the sheet music is still on order and will be arriving in the coming months. I want to have a good variety of music genres in the program, but still have a cohesive recital that people will want to see. I also have been working on the travel itinerary as well, and I plan to spend roughly 2 weeks in each state when I travel, so I’ll be on the road for about 6 months in total (April-October).

I’ve also started looking at vintage catalogs and books to get a good idea fashion wise how I want to present myself on the road.  It will be more of a conservative 1920’s look to keep with the music I’ll be presenting. It’s amazing what little details come into play with something like this.

If you or someone else you know would like to help contribute with this project in one way of another, please send them my way or share this blog with them.  While I am the one embarking on this journey, this travelogue is about the communities along the Lincoln Highway as well.  You all are stars in this project as much as I am.

I will be posting regularly about my progress, which will include photos and video.  If there is something you want me to post about, please let me know.  What I think might be boring may be totally interesting to you.  If it’s interesting to you, it’s probably interesting to more people out there.

Wherever you all are, I wish you all the best in this new year and I look forward to seeing you on the road in 2012.

Post Buy-Way weekend update

by

Hello everyone.  You may have wondered my my blog has been silent after the Buy-Way weekend, and this is why.

When my husband and I arrived home from our trip, we found our house was broken into, and the place was ransacked.  There are still a lot of things that are happening right now, and what he says in his own blog post is pretty much dead on (click here to read the post).

Emotionally, things are still pretty raw with me right now.  Something like this has never happened to me before, and compounded with other losses sustained in the last 12

months, it feels overwhelming at times. People have been very supportive, and I appreciate all of your kind thoughts and prayers.  They are still needed and wanted.

I will be writing about the Buy Way weekend, posting pictures and video soon in the coming weeks after doors are painted, closets put back together, and equipment is bought. Please stay tuned for a future blog on the whole weekend.

Take care and stay safe everyone!

Absence makes the road call faster

by

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”- Abraham Lincoln

So I’ve been fairly quiet in the blog world this month. Not because I’ve got nothing to say (my beloved, friends, and family can attest to that), but because I’ve been working on so many other facets of the 2013 concert that are hard to write about.

I’ve been pouring over hundreds of pieces of sheet music from the 1910’s, 20’s and 30’s (some of them the original publications) thinking about what pieces of music I like and would work well for buy cheap viagra online the travelogue, as well as thinking about what format to sing everything in.

I’ve figured out the format now, and am still whittling down the songs for the concert in my own music practice (finding and sight reading all of these pieces takes a long time). I still need help in finding old concert programs from places along the highway. Hopefully I can find some programs soon.

The need to be on the road exploring the highway has been growing stronger since the conference. I was trying to figure out a way to see more of the highway this year, and I found it!

At this time next week, I’ll be driving on the Lincoln Highway for the annual “Buy-Way” weekend.  I plan to drive through all five participating states to check out the areas and talk to anyone and everyone I can about the travelogue for 2013.

Here’s my rough itinerary:

I will leave Chicago in the middle of next week and drive east to Pittsburgh via the later alignments of the LH route.  I will drive West the rest of the week on the original alignments on the days noted below.

Thursday: West Virginia and Ohio

Friday: Indiana and Illinois

Saturday: Illinois and Iowa (ending in Colo, IA at the famous Reed/Niland corner).

I will be writing from the road as I did in June.  If anyone has any recommendations of things I should see while I’m out and about, let me know.  I especially want to check out old theatres and opera houses of course.

If any of you will be driving too, please let me know!  I would love to see you.

Safe travels!

Post-Conference Highlights and Reflections

by

Happy 4th of July everyone!

So it’s been about a week since I last wrote, and my brain is still swimming from all of the things I learned at the Lincoln Highway Association conference. I did not come directly home after the conference, because of some other traveling I had to do. Now that I am home, I now have the time to write about all of my impressions of my first Lincoln Highway Association conference (you can read highlights of it all here on their website). I have photo highlights of Tuesday and Wednesday on this website in previous posts if you would like to see more photos.

Monday’s welcome dinner was quite a welcoming.  The guest speaker was McAvoy Layne, who is “The Ghost of Twain”. He regaled us with Mark Twain’s first view of Lake Tahoe and the mishaps that ensued upon arrival. As a performer myself, I very much enjoyed how he engaged the crowd, but was genuine in his performance.  For a first-time attendee like me (it was noted on my lanyard/name badge), the dinner also gave me a chance to meet new people and learn more about the association and the conference.

Tuesday’s tour of California was impressive.  I’ve only been to San Francisco for a quick weekend trip, so I’ve never really explored the state. We started at our hotel in Stateline, Nevada taking the southern route of the highway along what would have been the pioneer route with stops along the way to Clarksville, CA. The view from Echo Summit was breathtaking.  The paved road underneath my feet had been there to serve pioneers and motorists for a very long time, and it was humbling to think that people negotiated this road in worse conditions not very long ago.

The road near Echo Summit.

The highlight of Tuesday for me was when the Hangtown A’s out of Placerville, CA treated us to a drive on the original Lincoln Highway roads in Model A cars through the ghost town of Clarkesville, CA. Here the road was only 14 feet wide in some places, and the texture of the road was not the smooth tarmac we are all used to. It was a conglomerate of stone and concrete. It is believed that Folsom prisoners laid this part of the Lincoln Highway. Driving along these roads in the heat of day (it was around 100 degrees), the speed of the car and  sound of the horn all took you back in time instantly. Our driver Ernie was pretty “zen” with his 1927 Model A. It takes a delicate sensibility to know when to shift gears and when not to.

Driving along the original road, near Clarkesville, CA.

As we were part way along our drive, the car turned and we were on part of the road that had been updated and now paralleled Highway 50, the new alignment of the Lincoln Highway. Ernie commented on this, and I remarked about why they didn’t incorporate the old road in with the new road.  Why did they build the new road right next to it? Ernie then said, “It was much easier to build a new road next to the old one. That way people could still get to where they were going without stopping traffic.”

This echoed some of the comments made on the tour that morning. There were still a couple of these old Lincoln Highway roads that could still be used if US 50 had to be shut down due to inclement weather. These older roads still provided a temporary safe pass through the Sierras.

For some reason, this thought hasn’t left me in the last week. Maybe this shows what generation or locale that I grew up in, but that never happens now. No one cares if you’re stuck on construction laden roads, that’s just the way life is. It was quite a “Kodak” moment to be moving along on the old road while watching the traffic and construction on the new road.

View of modern Lincoln Highway (US 50) while driving on original Lincoln Highway road.

Wednesday’s tour of the Nevada side proved to be just as memorable. Starting off at the Carson City museum, we were able to have a special tour of Coin Press #1 which was in use for many years all over the country. Being part of the conference, we were given a unique coin memento which was made from this very machine. This museum is a great museum with plenty of exhibits. We had two hours there, but I’m sure we could have spent the whole day there if we wanted to.

Special Coin minted just for our conference.

Next, we were off to Dayton, Nevada, which was settled around 1863. The Dayton Historical Society really pulled out the stops for us as we ate lunch and were able to walk the old part of the town freely for the afternoon. They were truly wonderful people. We were able to get a tour of the old firehouse/jail, and see the museum (which is in the old schoolhouse). The museum houses hundreds of items from the community and is definitely worth a stop if you are in the area. One neat hidden part of the town is actually off main street.  There is a rock wall next to the Union Hotel building, which is the remnants of an Overland Stagecoach Station, and was a Pony Express stop.

Overland Stage Station Wall, Dayton Nevada.

Thursday was seminar day and all of the speakers were wonderful. The two speakers that stood out for me and my upcoming travels the most were Bob Chase’s talk on his motorbike ride across the Lincoln Highway in a Piaggio MP3 in 2008, and the keynote speech by Craig MacDonald. Craig spoke about the evolution of US 50 historically, going back over 150+ years to talk about pioneers and stagecoach drivers including the infamous Charley Parkhurst (a female stagecoach driver who was the first woman to vote in the US).  We surprised everyone when I came up on stage at the end to sing and lead everyone in an anthem fit for Charley. I have video of me singing, and it will be posted at a later date.

There are so many memories of this week, I could write a book on it.  For a first time conference goer, it was a fantastic experience. Many thanks to the California and Nevada Lincoln Highway Chapters for their organization of such an awesome week. I also want to thank all of the other members who went out of their way to help me, give advice on my project, and just make me feel welcome to the organization overall. I look forward to communicating with all of you in the future.