Saturday, 24 February 2024

[dcab-l] Ed's Original Song: "Ode to Jennie Wade"

Songwriters & Music Lovers:

 

Here’s a studio recording of an original Ed Schaeffer song: "Ode to Jennie Wade", written in 2012

and recorded in 2021.  An “Ode” is a lyric that respects or celebrates the worth or influence of

another; in this song, Jennie Wade.

 

Mary Virginia Wade of Gettysburg, Pa, during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, at the age

of 20, became the only direct civilian casualty, killed while baking bread, by a stray bullet through

her door.  A music lover at Cactus Flatts, Jim Riche, suggested I write a song about Wade,

whose story begs endless fascination.  Poetic license allowed my bending her story into this song.

 

 

Musicians:

Peter Sittner             Bass

Tad Marks                Fiddle

Ed Schaeffer            Vocal & Martin Guitar

 

To listen, click:  http://rattlesnakehill.org/Web_Music/edsmusic.html

 

Ed

 

                  Ode to Jennie Wade  D-

Ed Schaeffer 2012

 

Chorus: Where's your rebel Jennie Wade, Jennie Wade?

  Not some battlefield, not some grave

  Not a breath left in the breeze

  Not a whisper in the leaves

 

I'll bake bread for you my dear, before the battle starts

We'll be safe within our home, a fire is in the hearth

Was that a crack come from the fire? Your knock upon the door?

Below the handle, by the lock, I feel a hole's been bored                       

 

A bullet slices through the door, then deeply through her breast

A fountain red of blood pours out, a fire within her chest

He falls first from battle's doom, then she from bullet stray

His last thought: her baking bread, so still their bodies lay

 

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