The Fourth Of July

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Given the very patriotic theme of many of our songs, if there was ever a day made for Sing-Out South and Up With People to perform, it was surely the 4th of July!

But believe it or not, Sing-Out South did not perform, at least not in person, on the occasion of its first Independence Day in July, 1966. Many members of the cast had just finished attending the national Sing-Out conference in Estes Park, CO. that year and a number of them had joined the expanded national casts (Casts A,B & C) of what was now being called "Up With People."

But July 4, 1966 was still an important day in Sing-Out South history. That's because it was the day that WSM-TV, Channel 4, aired our first half-hour long TV special, entitled appropriately, A LIVING DECLARATION.

The program was hosted by Eddie Lunn, who provided several dramatic readings from the Declaration of Independence while Jim Troutner performed the solos on "Paul Revere", "The Volunteers of Tennessee" and "Which Way America."


Donna Dowthitt sang "Somewhere Just Beyond Tomorrow" and provided one of three Speak Outs by cast members along with Harbin Williams and Sandi Vandergriff.

Eddie Lunn also got to show off his musical talents along with the other members of the Hickory Valley Trio (Ted Overman and Cabot Wade with Bob Cates on the drums) performing "Freedom Isn't Free", "A New Tommorrow" and "A Design for Dedication."

The full cast (with a chorus of close to 200 people) performed choral arrangements of "Can't You Hear America Calling" and "This Is My Country" before all of the cast recited together the end of the Declaration of Independence.

Quite a show huh? And it wasn't easy to produce. In fact, when the show was taped in late May of 1966 before the cast left for the Estes Park conference, production took so long, it had to be shut down for a while so the 10 PM Newscast could be broadcast from an adjoining studio.

How do I remember all this? Well, I was present at the taping and while no video version of the show remains, there is an audio copy and a copy of the original script from that TV show.

On July 4, 1967, a newly reconstituted Sing-Out South performed in Kingston Springs and rode on this float in the city's 4th of July Parade. I vaguely remember working on the float and spending the night with cast member Jerry Baker, who lived in Kingston Springs. Jerry was something of a big wig in the city in those days, so I suspect he had a lot to do with setting up the performance, which I think was on the local baseball field.

The next year, July 4, 1968 we performed at the Donelson American Legion, a show I have absolutely no memory of performing. It was probably an outdoor performance, we did a lot of them in the summer months, often with our stage and sound crews keeping a watchful eye to the sky, as a sudden, pesky thunderstorm could not only end the show abruptly, a lightning strike could be downright dangerous, if not deadly.

Those are the 4th of July Sing-Out South shows I remember. What memories do you have? Please leave your comments below.

In The Beginning....

This is where it all began for me...and for hundreds of other young people in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

It was January, 1966, a very cold and snowy time.

But, while Nashville is usually a city, even today, that shuts down when the weather is bad, there was a spirit and a energy present in those days that still seems quite unique.

A new group called "Sing-Out '66" performed a series of whirlwind concerts all across the city that seemed to electrify many of the young people and even adults who saw it. That included myself, a freshman at Father Ryan High School. I had gone to see one of the shows at the old Fairgrounds Coliseum with some cousins of mine. It was a performance like none we had ever witnessed.

The appearance of Sing-Out had been promoted for weeks by the city's afternoon paper, THE NASHVILLE BANNER, and it definitely helped build the excitement.

The photo above is one that appeared on the cover of a book sold at the Sing-Out shows. It was called "How To Create Your Own Sing-Out."

So that is exactly what happened! In fact, more than 600 people attended the first organizational meeting at Belmont College (now University) on January 26, 1966 with over 200 coming back the following Saturday morning despite a new snowstorm that had struck the city.

Sing-Out South was born!

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, we in Sing-Out South soon tried to become as good as our national counterparts. That included not only wearing out our copies of "How To Create Your Own Sing-Out" to learn the words and movements to the songs, but even posing for a publicity shot that looks a lot like the cover photo above.

Actually, this photo was taken at Dupont High School in May of 1966 right before we performed an outdoor show at the football stadium there.

So what was your first Sing-Out experience? Were you there at the beginning? Did you see an SOS or Up With People show and then get involved? Please share your thoughts by clicking on the comments links below.

We plan to do a new blog posting here at least once a week, taking a look back at the history of SOS and UWP in the 1960s and early
'70s, along with some flashbacks on the news and the overall pop culture we all grew up during that time. We've love your ideas about what we should blog about and, especially, any stories you have to share.