Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 19, 1993 TAG: 9302190263
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
HARMONIC TRILLIUM TO LIGHTEN CIVIL WAR WEEKEND
The woodlands around this region shelter a delicate flower called trillium for its three petals and the three leaves whorled around its stalk.A Blacksburg vocal group specializing in tight, three-part harmonies and Appalachian music thought it was an apt metaphor and appropriated the name.
Trillium, the singing group, is part of the entertainment at the Second Annual Civil War Weekend at Virginia Tech. It will perform a medley of Civil War-era songs tonight, 8:30 to 9:30, in the Donaldson Brown Center's Commonwealth Dining Room.
Singing in the 5-year-old group are Mary Ann Lentz, Kathleen Adamo and Kathy Stell. Lentz, lead singer in The Blue Sky Band and a former New Virginian, plays guitar and lap dulcimer. Scott Hurst plays lead guitar and mandolin.
"I sat down with Dr. James Robertson to figure out what songs we needed," Stell said. The Tech professor and Civil War scholar said the war had generated more than 2,000 songs. "Music has a universal appeal," Stell said. "The impact is tremendous."
To get ideas, she said, the group also reviewed a tape of the PBS television show that excerpted the music from Ken Burns' "Civil War" PBS documentary series.
The set will feature favorites such as "Dixie," "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
"I'm afraid Jimmy Cagney created a misimpression, that the song `When Johnny Comes Marching Home' was from World War I," Robertson said. "Actually, it was referring to Johnny Reb."
Less-familiar songs such as "Goober Peas," "Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Bonnie Blue Flag" also will be part of Trillium's performance.
This is not the group's first foray into the music of that era. The Civil War also was the theme for the 1991 Montgomery County Historical Festival at Smithfield Plantation.
The group, which was playing its second year at the county festival, researched to add late-19th century songs to its repertoire of Appalachian music. While it was too late to book the group for Tech's First Annual Civil War Weekend, Dean Farmer, organizer for the event, made sure to get it for the next one.
Farmer was interested in fiddle music because it is so indicative of that period. The portability of the instrument ensured that musically inclined soldiers would carry it along to brighten the peaceful hours.
While that's not an instrument that normally accompanies the group, Stell said the members persuaded Jack Hinshelwood to work with them for this engagement.
The Montgomery County native had been playing guitar for six years before he picked up the fiddle. In 1992, he placed sixth in the bluegrass fiddle competition at the Old Time Fiddler's Convention in Galax.
"I find the fiddle to be real expressive," he said. "Someone once said that the fiddle was the closest thing in tone to the human voice, and I'd have to agree with that."
While they're becoming a specialty for Trillium, Civil War songs are not the only ones in the group's songbook.
"We do anything that has three-part harmony," including Andrews Sisters songs from the 1940s and other Big Band favorites, Celtic tunes, folk songs, gospel, contemporary melodies and the blues, said Stell. But the favorite is the music of this region.
"They're unique," said Hinshelwood. "In a festival sitting, they really stand out because they do these shape-note harmony songs and they usually do them a cappella. It's very striking, very beautiful."