In 2006 I took an arrangements class at Meadowlark Music Camp with the amazing vocalist, guitar player, harmonizer, and arranger, Cindy Kallett (http://cindykallet.com). I had an idea for a version of “House of the Rising Sun” that focused on Hurricane Katrina and the impact of destroying the coastline growth that protects us from floods and hurricanes, and I decided to use that as my class piece.
The amazing thing about an arrangements class where everyone is better than you, is that you get to say things like, “I’m looking for something for this tune that feels angry.” And then everyone goes around in a circle and tries different bits and pieces of stuff that you couldn’t do in a million years, and you get to pick and choose what you like and then put them all together into something far greater than you could do on your own. So I came out of it with awesome sad flute pieces from Anna Grosslein, and really angry fiddle from Lyle Hawthorne, and I asked both of them and my daughter if they’d perform it with me on the final performance night–and this was the result.
It starts off with my guitar playing a bit rocky–I was nervous! And I screw up the vocals more than once. But all and all, it conveyed the meaning and emotion I was looking for. And the audience kicked in at the end the way only the Meadowlark audience can do. So, ten years later, I decided it was time to put some imagery on it as well, and here’s the result.
- Kee Hinckley – guitar, vocals
- Anna Grosslein – flute
- Shireen Hinckley – fiddle, vocals
- Lyle Hawthorne – lead fiddle
- Meadowlark attendees – chorus
Many thanks to Cindy Kallet and the Arrangements class for all their assistance.
You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags–that is a loyalty of unreason, it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it. I was from Connecticut, whose Constitution declares “that all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit; and that they have at all times an undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of government in such a manner as they may think expedient.”
I’m Kee Hinckley (he/his). That’s my wife 
