Americans have always been drawn to the frontier. Whether crossing an ocean, a continent, or the cosmos, so much of our shared history involves crossing the frontier in search of a better life.
This search is very personal to me. On April 17, 1914, just months before the outbreak of World War I, my grandfather boarded the SS San Guglielmo in Naples Italy, arriving at Ellis Island 12 days later. For the next eleven years, he worked and saved in a strange new land until he had enough money for his wife and children to join him – including an 11 year old son, my Uncle Frank, whom he had never met. They crossed their own ocean frontier in search of the American Dream.
To honor that spirit, I included two different songs on AMERICA: 250 Years Young that look at the American Frontier in very different ways.
Pecos Bill: The Spirit of the Old West
Pecos Bill is one of the definitive “Tall Tale” songs in American Music. Written for the 1948 Walt Disney animated feature Melody Time, it blends the folklore of the Old West with the polished Western sound made famous by Roy Rogers & The Sons of the Pioneers.
With a simple accompaniment of guitar, bass, pedal steel and harmonica, it’s a humble tribute to the man who dug out the Rio Grande just because he needed a place to water his horse.
Shenandoah: The Spirit of Longing
While Pecos Bill captures the fun of the frontier, Shenandoah embodies its quiet, searching soul. This pillar of American folk music has gone through numerous changes since it was first sung by fur traders paddling down the the Missouri River in the early 1800’s.
The original lyrics are believed to refer to the daughter of the Oneida chief Skenandoa (“O Shenandoah, I love your daughter”). Then over time, the song was adopted by pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail, who reflected on their longing for the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia as they journeyed “’cross the wide Missouri”.
But whether a song about a river, a lost love, or a rugged journey, it has come to represent the vast, searching spirit of the American Frontier, and remains a simple, aching prayer for home.
Join the Journey
Whether crossing an ocean to start anew. charting the wilderness of an expanding nation, or just singing around the campfire, these tracks celebrate the enduring grit and imagination of the American experience.
Pecos Bill and Shenandoah are available on AMERICA: 250 Years Young, streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and more.