Pocahontas star herald., 1923-07-20
The Old Songs

In this day of hectically erotic and
theoretically jazz music it is refresh
ing to know that the sweet, simple
and touching melodies of yesterday
are not altogether forgotten. The
memories of these tunes still remain,
and every now and then the music
makers of the moment call back the
familiar airs as reminder that the
same human sentiment still lives be-
meath the mood of the hour. For all
our fads of music, of customs, of
clothes and what not, we are now, as
we have always been, the same crea-
lures with the same instincts, the
same emotions and the same sensibili-
ties. Our tastes may become altered,
may attach themselves to any number
of passing fancies, but our hearts are
Interchangeable, and the way to them
lies along a path that is shaded with
eternal forests wherein the voice of
nature, chanting its unending psalm
Of life, is much the same today as
II was yesterday and as it will be to-
morrow.
II must be, therefore, with a sense
Of the deepest satisfaction that Amer
lean of all classes and all stations
will read the news that the state Of
Kentucky is going to immortalize the
name of one whose songs have
touched the deepest feelings and in
spired the tenderest emotions of all
his countrymen. The state park
around the house near Bards town
where "My Old Kentucky Home was
written, that is to be dedicated and
consecrated TO the memory of stephen
Collins Foster, will be shrine for
Americans whose hearts are attuned TO
the sincere, the human and the home
ly things of life 1t will be a me
mortal merely to name, because any
thing more wonld be super erogation.
What this shrine shall do will be TO
identify a personality with voice
that needs nothing of outside aid to
make it as perennially fresh as the
lisping of a brook.
The generation Of today hears so
much by day and by night of shrek
ing, weired, barbaric and adiscordaRt
harmony, telling OF The Snakes
Hips strut Long Papa, "The Alco-
holic Blues.' and such like, it is pos
sible quite a few have never heard
except in jazz melody some of the
harmonious and heart touching melo1
dies Of a generation and more ago.
The ardent devotecs Of the modern
whirling deryish dance no doubt re-
gSrd as an antiquated fogy anyone
who can get an emotional thrill from
! My Old Kentucky Home" "'rhe Old
Folks at Home" "Old Uncle Ned. p
"Nellie Gray "Alassas in the Cold
Cold Ground" "Old Dog Tray" or ans
Of the other appealing ballads that
were penned by the man whose mem
ory Kentucky is determined to honor
Not in years have we heard quar-
tette of either male or mixed voice.
harmonic on Come Where My Low,
Lies Dreaming" and yet since ther
there have been written in this country
very few songs that possess the quail
ties for such easy and perfect har
mony.
In the Volstead days some oI
the old boys grown young again fol
the moment were accustomed to tempt
4 fate with execrable attempts to har
nonize on The Old Oaken Bucket.
Sweet Adeline" and some of IN,
other favorites brought back to miut
when the flowing cup had WASHED
away the realization Of years. But
even these renpses into sentiment ar,
CROWN fewer and farther between
Like the old tintypes, the old song,
are being neglected, and when. by nc
cident, one is heard pealing forth
from a mechanical device operated by
a street vender Of music its strains
seem as bizarre and comical as the
photographs Of hoop skirts and beaver
as compared with syncopation jazz
hats. But, for all their strangcness
.and the other strange forms of rhythm
coming from the submerged element.
Iut society the old melodies have a
soul touching strain that can be- as
Iorpealing today as ever il was~-Com.
mcrcial Appeal.