| EARL ROBINSON, BURL IVES | The Lonesome Train ✦ Buch ✦ CD | | Hardcover book (72 pages, full colour) with CD (12 tracks) on Richard Weize's . . . And More Bears Label.
Now virtually forgotten, The Lonesome Train premiered on CBS Radio in the midst of World War II. A parable framed around Abraham Lincoln's funeral train, it was staged in major concert halls with symphony orchestras and massive choirs. High schools, colleges and countless community theater groups delivered its inspirational message about freedom and racial harmony to audiences throughout the country. Its appeal was not just limited to the United States; productions were held in Canada and eight foreign countries.
Ironically, The Lonesome Train would soon disappear from public consciousness, a victim of Cold War paranoia. Persuasive zealots denounced the work as Communist propaganda, succeeding in getting the records banished from schools and the airwaves. Targeted by Congressional conservatives and right-wing watchdogs, lyricist Millard Lampell and composer Earl Robinson were blacklisted, unable to find work in film, radio or television.
With fascism, racism and antisemitism aggressively on the rise, The Lonesome Train may be more relevant now than ever. |
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