On Saturday, March 26, 2011, I’ll be presenting stories and songs in Cleburne, Texas at the General Pat Cleburne Birthday Party/ Scottish Festival & Heritage Celebration 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM  You can find a description of the event here:   Recently, I completed  reading A Meteor Shining Brightly: Essays on Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne, edited by Mauriel Phillips Joslyn with a foreword by Wiley Sword (Terrell House Pub).  Joslyn’s book was award Georgia Author of the Year in Creative Nonfiction and Best Biography in 1998.  The collection of essays and photographs on Cleburne is illuminating and fascinating to any student of America’s Civil War. The eleven essays reveal the story of one of the most respected and successful generals of the Confederacy, one known as “The Stonewall of the West.”  We see Cleburne from his birth and early life in Ireland, to his career in the British military, to his immigration to Arkansas, and to his final days in the Confederate Army, rising from private to Brigadier General.  It relates his heart-wrenching engagement to Susan Tarleton from Mobile, and describes numerous anecdotes that illustrate the love and respect he held from his peers and his soldiers.

I found this a touching Irishman’s story.  He was a man whose early years were spent in some of the most troubled in Ireland’s history. In America, he was a man of principle, and an early advocate of the emancipation of slaves and their use in the Army. At first, his ideas were rejected by those in power in the Confederacy, but his idea eventually won over that leadership, but it was too late in the war to make a difference.  As Wiley Sword says, “Patrick Cleburne represents an ultimate Southern hero . . .[who] did his duty, even under the maddening, frustrating circumstances of foolish orders and glaring mistakes . . . .”

Sometime ago I learned a song from Jed Marum, “The Stonewall of the West” and I often use the song in my Civil War and Arkansas History programs. (You can purchase Jed’s recording on iTunes). The song was written by Kim Feathers Caudell (unfortunately I couldn’t locate her website). I’ll be performing the song and sharing stories of Cleburne at the festival this weekend and for the Cleburne ISD on Friday.  As the town was named in honor of Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne, under whom many of the men had fought during the Civil War, Cleburne’s story is one they should know.  If you’re anywhere near Cleburne, please come and support the festival.  The image below was borrowed from Southernmessenger.com

Here are the lyrics of a new song I’ve written, one I hope to include on my next music CD, which Jed Marum has agree to produce for me. The CD will either be a collection of originals, or a Scots-Irish CD, with a few extra originals on it.  Anyway, here are the lyrics to my new song, “Just a Photograph.”

Every night I look at your picture
Every night I sing you a song,
Every night I kiss your memory
It seems to move the night along
They say a picture’s worth at least a thousand words
A picture holds the truth, even if it’s blurred,
There’s two people in every photo
They say the camera never lies
This photo reminds me of our story,
And how I loved those sad green eyes.

I think love’s always in color,
It’s seldom in black and white,
Capturing secrets of our secrets,
Clear in  day but fading at night,
We’ll keep all those scenes
In the scrapbook of our heart
Posed or improvised
Models for love’s art
This photo captured you forever,
A portrait painted by the sun
Layers of our past and  present,
Before it all came undone.

I guess we frame all our memories
Like photos behind fragile glass
Then hang them on our heart walls,
Hoping that they’ll always last.
The photos may one day be faded
May be torn or may be lost,
I know it’s just a picture
Taken years ago,
But that’s how I’ll always remember you,
A green-eyed girl that I loved so.

This picture was developed
In the darkroom of our hearts
A mirror of our memory
Life and love divided into parts
It was a time when we were happy,
A time when we had souls,
Seen in love’s incandescent prism,
On  stage as if a tableau,
Our love flickered into existence,
And even now, it still won’t go.

My new CD is on CD Baby and is a collection of acoustic songs (and a tune or tow) related to America’s Civil War. One can obtain the tunes on iTunes or on CD Baby. The CD Baby link is here:

My CD cover, designed by Virgina Marum.

I had a great time at the North Texas Irish Festival. Still on the road–La Isla Restaurant in Arlington Tomorrow at 7:00, then Prairie Vista Middle School Friday.

At Urchin Street at the Festival