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.