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Smithsonian Folkways has released a collection of Civil War Naval songs. Cover art courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways.

In timing with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Smithsonian Folkways has released a new collection, Civil War Naval Songs: Period Ballads from the Union and Confederate Navies, and the Home Front. The album consists of 13 lively 19th-century tunes that sailors sung on ships or, when docked in port, or belted out in taverns, as well as a few songs their families listened to in their absence—all performed by an all-star group of folk musicians. To hear more about the songs and their origins, I recently caught up with the collection’s producer Dan Milner, a folk song collector and researcher and singer of traditional Irish songs who has teamed up with Folkways before (Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea).

Download a free mp3 copy of “Monitor & Merrimac” courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways

How would you describe the style of the songs?

There are four main types of songs on the recording: firsthand reports from combatants, songs from ballad sheets, songs from urban variety theatres and concert saloons, and parlor songs.

The firsthand reports are blow-by-blow descriptions and are about victories. The losers had other priorities as you can imagine. “The Fight of the Hatteras and Alabama” and “The Brooklyn, Sloop-of-War” are examples.

Ballad sheets are a printed song format that doesn’t exist any longer. They were the first mechanically reproduced song medium. Essentially, they are the words of one song printed on one side of a sheet of paper—importantly with no musical notation—but frequently with a commonly known tune indicated as appropriate for singing. Many of these were sold on busy street corners but many were sent by mail to rural places. They are predecessors of both the modern newspaper and modern sheet music and were occasionally written by hacks working from early, sometimes sketchy, reports. They vary in tone and can be alternately rousing, sad, political, full of praise, damning, etc. “A Yankee Man-of-War” and “The Old Virginia Lowlands, Low” are examples.

Music from early variety (pre-vaudeville) theatres appears mostly in songsters: portable, paper covered booklets of perhaps 40 pages. You can liken ballad sheets to singles and songsters to albums. They’re frequently upbeat—“The Monitor & Merrimac” is an example—and some were used for recruiting purposes. Comic singers were the royalty of Civil War music halls. Our recording is very compelling because everyone is very loose and the arrangement works so well. Gabe Donohue thumps beautifully on the piano. Kate Bowerman’s piccolo and clarinet work is hilarious. The chorus is really alive. If Spike Jonze’s Jones’ grandfather had been a bandleader during the Civil War, his music would have sounded like this.

Parlor songs were printed on sheet music as we undertand the term today and meant primarily for performance in middle- and upper-class homes, where popular theatres were frowned upon. Parlor songs (“The Alabama,” for example) were usually more musically complex and textually refined than the other types.

How did you go about finding the tunes you included?

There are some obvious places to look, starting with archives that hold 19th century song material. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Lester Levy Collection of Sheet Music at Johns Hopkins University are two such important places and they have extensive collections viewable online. But I went to a number of research libraries as well, the Watkinson Library of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, for example. “The Blockade Runner” came from the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

Singers are always looking for good, interesting songs, and that was the first criteria in selection. But I also wanted the CD to be equally representative of Northerners, Southerners and Immigrants. I desperately wanted African-Americans in that mix too—18,000 African-Americans served in the Union Navy—but, try as hard as I could—I was not able to find any Civil War maritime songs that were identifiably the product of Black Americans, though I’m still looking. The answer to this apparent riddle is that real folk song passes from mouth to ear. Only occasionally are the words set down on paper. African-American songs were composed, they just weren’t recorded on paper and archived. Generally speaking, I bet for every one good Civil War naval song that was preserved another 99 were lost. The CD is nearly 53-minutes long and carries a tremendous amount of variety from song to song.

What can be learned about the Civil War era by listening to this collection?

Without question, people had a lot fewer diversions to occupy their time. One result of that was they probably sang a lot more. The Civil War period came towards the close of the end of the Second Great Awakening in America. During that period, the idea of duty was second only to religious commitment. I believe the ideas of service, patriotic fervor and fighting the “good fight” are strongly embedded in these songs.

(For more information on the battles and soldiers described in the song’s lyrics, download the liner notes.)

What did you enjoy most about the recording process?

Making recordings is fun but it’s also hard work. I immensely enjoyed working with Jeff Davis, David Coffin, Deirdre Murtha, Bonnie Milner and the other fine singers and musicians who took part. They are an extraordinarily talented crew. All were very generous with their time and contributed mightily to the CD. For all of us, hearing moments of musical genius emerge was tremendously uplifting. For sheer fun, personally, I really enjoyed the entry of the double fiddles on “The Brooklyn, Sloop-of-War.” I jumped in the air when I heard the playback.

Craig Fifer (right) and friends visit the Freer Gallery of Art, March 13. Photo courtesy of Craig Fifer.

As much as the ATM blog team enjoys keeping you up-to-date with the latest-and greatest-happenings around the Smithsonian Institution, we’re equally excited when readers share their experiences with us— what exhibitions they’ve seen, which museums they’ve visited and what keeps bringing them back to the Mall again and again.

One such reader, Craig Fifer, recently shared the details of his “Smithsonian quest” with us, and we, in turn, share his story with you.

Craig Fifer, an employee with the nearby City of Alexandria, was visiting the “Norman Rockwell” exhibition in early January of this year at the Smithsonian American Art Museum when he had a thought. First, he marveled at how generous lenders are for sharing their works of art with the public and then he thought that having free museums was a gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

“Since I was in a new year mindset at the time,” he says, “I decided to make a resolution to visit all of the Smithsonian museums over the course of 2011.” Living so close to Washington, D.C., Fifer, like most D.C.-area residents, hadn’t taken full advantage of the Institution’s proximity. So, in 2011, he decided to change that.

He invited friends to join him on his quest and they documented their jaunts. On Saturday, Fifer and crew (so far, he has 41 RSVPs) will wrap up the 20-site visit that has taken him and his friends up to New York and all Around the Mall, eight months ahead of schedule. So, if you happen to be at the National Zoo on Saturday, around 3 PM, stop by the Panda Cafe terrace (across from the zebra entrance) and you might catch the Questers having a belated birthday party for Fifer, who turned 33 on Wednesday. Hey, who says you can’t be a kid again?

Fifer’s three favorite sights on the trip were: the “Enterprise” space shuttle at the Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, the “Americans Now” exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery and the “Ghost Clock” at the Renwick Galley. He hopes that his Quest will encourage other readers to take in the sights, too.

Next up for Fifer? Why, more museums of course. “Once I complete the Smithsonian quest,” he says, “I plan to work for the rest of the year on a new goal of visiting a total of 50 museums in 2011.” Well, with such a good head start, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Happy trails!

Friday, April 22 River of Renewal

Documentary producers Jack Kohler and Stephen Most will be on hand at the American Indian Museum to discuss the environmental issues raised in their award-winning film, River of Renewal. Based on Most’s book of the same title, the film explores the conflict between farmers, ranchers and local tribes over Oregon’s waterways through the eyes of Jack Kohler, a Yurok/Karuk Indian. Free. 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM with discussion following the showing. National Museum of the American Indian Film repeats daily (except Wednesdays) through Saturday, April 30.

Saturday, April 23 Make It and Take It workshop

Family event. Kids can make a Easter hat or bonnet, decorate an egg and take them home for your family celebration. Free, reservations requested. 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Anacostia Community Museum.

Prize-winning orchid (Embreea rodigasiana) from the collection of Tom Mirenda. Photo courtesy of Tom Mirenda.

Sunday, April 24 Orchids: A View from the East

Last Chance. The annual display of more than 200 live orchids closes today. On view at the Natural History Museum, the exhibition Orchids: a View From the East transports visitors to a Chinese scholar’s garden and discusses how the plants were used in Chinese medicines. Free. Natural History Museum. A companion exhibition, The Orchid in Chinese Painting is on view at the Sackler Gallery through July 17. For more information check out our post on the exhibit.

It’s difficult to hear the phrase “TOPGUN” and not immediately have F-14 Tomcats zooming around in your brain against a rocking Kenny Loggins soundtrack. For most of us, the epic 1986 movie, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise as fighter pilot “Maverick” and Anthony Edwards as his trusty co-pilot “Goose,” is the beginning and end of our knowledge of the Navy’s elite specialized fighter training academy, the U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Instructions Program.

David "Bio" Baranek today. Photo courtesy of David Baranek.

CDR David Baranek, USN (Ret.), actually lived the TOPGUN lifestyle as both a student and an instructor–yet not as a Maverick, but as a Goose. An F-14 radar intercept officer (RIO), Baranek whose callsign was Bio, eventually became commander of his own F-14 squadron.

Now the 20-year Navy man adds author to his credentials, with his recent book, TOPGUN Days: Dogfighting, Cheating Death, and Hollywood Glory as One of America’s Best Fighter Jocks.

The book details stints at TOPGUN, his deployments, and the part that he played in the film Top Gun. “I wanted to go back to that time and talk about the things I worried about and not do it from hindsight,” Baranek said.

Illustrations were easy to come by, since “Bio” always carried a camera with him on his flights. As a result, he was able to capture images of some of the Navy’s finest 1980s airpower from an intimate perspective. Check out a gallery of some of his shots here.

“Bio” will be at the National Air and Space Museum this Saturday, April 23, signing copies of his book, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.. I spoke to him about his time at TOPGUN, how he might have gotten the finger from Tom Cruise, and if he, as Maverick and Goose did , still feels the need–the need for speed.

You were an F-14 radar intercept officer (RIO), like Goose was in the film. What were your primary flight responsibilities–and were you capable of piloting an F-14, if necessary?

The primary flight responsibilities are spelled out in the F-14 operating manual. Those are navigation, communication and operating the weapons system. When the F-14 was designed, because of parts of its mission and state of automation, they still needed one guy to make the radar be most effective. In addition, the RIO shared responsibility for the safety of the airplane. And if we were in a dogfight, I shared responsibility [with the pilot]. He’d keep track of the people he could, and he’d hand people off to me. In terms of piloting the plane, that’s easy. One, the Navy did not train RIOs to fly. And two, the F-14 had no flight controls in the back seat. That was not an option.

Calm, cool and in control, that’s the stereotype of the fighter pilot, right? What was the tightest spot you’ve been in?

I thought you were going to say the stereotypical image was obnoxious, arrogant and loud [laughing]! The biggest adventure I had was when I ejected from an F-14 landing on an aircraft carrier. But the situation lasted one second, so there was no time to get nervous…

As a former graduate and a former instructor, what kinds of things were done to really push the buttons of  pilots selected for TOPGUN?

You get all kinds [laughing]. Most pilots and RIOs are good. They respect the instructors and know that they have things to learn. Of course they bring confidence, but they’re mature enough not to be offensive. But every once in awhile you get a student and he’s ready to take on his TOPGUN instructors, too [chuckling]. I have to tell you, TOPGUN instructors can handle that stuff! You’re coming into their arena, and although they appreciate a good enthusiastic fighter pilot, you’ve got to know your limits! They can put people in their place. If you don’t get the message the first time, they’ll do it again.

During your time as air-to-air combat instructor, what was the most important advice you passed on to your students?

For me, one of the things I tried to emphasize was that you’re not supposed to just sit in the back seat and play with the radar and talk to the pilot. There are times when you need to be directing things on the radios. You need to be assertive.

As an RIO, regarding the type of pilot you’d rather fly with, are you a Maverick guy or an Iceman guy?

I flew with a lot of talented pilots, and I have to say that I’m a little bit selfish. I liked flying with a good pilot who does his job. A lot of flying, especially back then, is pretty boring, so you want to fly with a pilot who’s funny and entertaining, so you can tell stories [laughing]. So kind of like with a personality of Maverick, but a flying style of Iceman.

An F-14 Tomcat climbs into the evening sky in full afterburner during a training mission over Southern California. Photo by David Baranek.

So is that why you started taking pictures, because you had time to kill during flights? (view image gallery here).

I just got that from my father. I started taking pictures in grade school, and it’s something I picked up. It was a few years after I started loving airplanes and wanting to fly. We all flew the same mission and had a lot of time in the plane, but some guys just never carried a camera. It just didn’t interest them.

You were on board for some of the aerial stunts in Top Gun–so was that you onscreen behind one of the black helmets in one of the enemy fighters?

[laughs] The close-ups were of pilots [not RIOs]. In terms of flying the black jets, I’m pretty sure that it’s me in the scene where Maverick is flying inverted above the MiG [Tom Cruise's character, "Maverick," gives the finger to the pilots in the enemy MiG while flying above them, upside-down.]. I went out there and flew that mission. But we filmed that, and later I found out that one other RIO did that, also.

And how did you help Paramount with the dialogue?

A pilot and I went up to Paramount for two days. We looked at the film clips over and over again, and we helped one of the film editors to stitch clips into logical sequences for dogfights. And the main purpose was to tell Paramount what they [pilots and RIOs] would be saying in situations. We just sat there and looked at the film and the pilot and I started talking to each other…And a lot of that was dialogue for the flying scenes of the movie. But then they threw in a bunch of Hollywood stuff, too… “You hook ‘em, I’ll fry ‘em?” Come on! That’s Hollywood writer stuff! [laughing]

Now with the increase of unmanned drones, do you think dogfighting is dead?

It’s hard to say. People have been predicting that for decades now. Nowadays there seems to be less dogfighting… I think it’s going to be awhile before we can turn everything over to unmanned vehicles. They’re great for some missions, but they can’t do everything. As long as you’ve got humans in tactical airplanes, they better be prepared to meet enemy airplanes. We’ve got to be ready to face a lot of countries around the world, and as long as they have fighters with people in them, we’ve got to be ready to duel with them and defeat them. I think dogfighting is going to be around for at least, certainly 20 more years–probably 50 more years.

It appears that most of your experience was in the F-14. Is there another particular airplane in which you’re still craving some quality flight time?

[Laughs] The planes that I want are gone. I always loved the F-8 Crusader, but you have to be a pilot to fly that. I loved the Air Force F-106. Just a huge, powerful, beautiful plane. But you have to be a pilot for that, and those are retired, too. One of these days I’ll get up in a biplane and that’ll be fun!

Now read this post carefully, because there will be a quiz at the end. Let’s begin with a history lesson.

Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970 in cities and university campuses all over the United States. Founded by Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day began as a series of teach-ins at university campuses, as well as demonstrations to promote much-needed environmental reform. It was a time when the right set of conservation winds were blowing. Air pollution was being linked to disease. Fish kills occurred in the Great Lakes. A river in Ohio, oozing with oil and contaminants, suddenly burst into flames. An oil platform off the coast of Santa Barbara exploded and 100,000 barrels of crude oil seeped into the California channel killing thousands of sea birds and marine mammals.

More than 20 million people participated in the first Earth Day celebration, and it is now recognized in more than 175 countries and by 500 million people. The day also commemorates all those conservation-minded forerunners and founders of environmental activism.

There are dozens of these early environmental stewards within the collections of the National Portrait Gallery. With the museum staff’s help, we’ve compiled a list of just a few of the early supporters found there.

But this week, there’s a twist to our Wednesday List. It’s a quiz. (Answers will appear tomorrow). Test your Earth Day knowledge and tonight, head to the National Portrait Gallery for “Pop Quiz: Earth Day Challenge.” More details can be found after the questions.

As a naturalist and preservationist, I fell in love with Yosemite after visiting and later used my influence as an author to introduce the bill that created Yosemite National Park. Who am I? Portrait by Orlando Rouland/NPG

1. When I was in the U.S. Senate, I sponsored bills such as the 1965 Water Quality Act, supported the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and spoke at the first Earth Day celebration. Who am I?
2. As the second woman ever to be hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (now the Fish and Wildlife Service) my book about environmental problems caused by pesticides inspired the title of a current Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition called “A Fable for Tomorrow.” Who am I?
3. I was an author in the mid-20th century and won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972.  I helped launch the modern environmental movement through my writings for a campaign to prevent dams, which would have changed forever the landscape of  Dinosaur National Monument. Who am I?
4. My ideas about simple living as described in my most famous book about my cabin on the bank of a pond have inspired activists and laid the groundwork for what we consider environmental ethics today. Who am I?
5. I was an advocate for sustainable agriculture in the early 20^th century.  I am most known for my research into the growth and use of peanuts as an alternative to cotton crops.  Who am I?

To further test your knowledge, this evening visit the National Portrait Gallery and take the quiz at 6:30 p.m. in the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard.  It can be played individually or in groups of up to 6 people and the rule is you have to employ “Brain Power” —not Google—to answer the questions. Prizes will be awarded to the person or team with the most correct answers.  (ATM is not offering any prizes, by the way.)

ANSWERS, after the jump: (More…)