Bluegrass fans generally enjoy a well written Civil War song, and that’s just what Daniel Crabtree has delivered with his latest single for Bell Buckle Records.
In Cold Harbor, Crabtree paints a bleak picture of a day in 1864 with the song’s narrator stuck in Mechanicsville, VA, with both armies dug in, and his death on the horizon. This engagement, known to history as the Battle of Cold Harbor, was bloody on both sides, with the Union army taking the biggest hit.
Daniel says he tried to place himself in the mind of a soldier under Grant’s command in Cold Harbor.
“In the song, I tried to imagine some semblance of what it must have been like. The final victory was won by Lee’s army during the war. The Union army lost ten to thirteen thousand men over twelve days. I penned these words to commemorate the battle and the lives lost during our history. Let us not forget the price that’s been paid so that we might live as one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
Support comes from Cody Kilby on guitar, Scott Vestal on banjo, Jesse Brock on mandolin, Jason Carter on fiddle, Jeff Partin on reso-guitar, Patrick D’Arcy on bodhran and whistle, and Mike Bub on bass.
It’s a somber reminder, indeed. Check it out.
Cold Harbor is available now from popular download and streaming services online. It will also be included on Daniel Crabtree’s upcoming fourth album, The Way I See It, with a mix of gospel and secular material.
The track is available to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct.
