Not every bluegrass song has a deep meaning, nor a longstanding historical reference. But with William’s Still Alive, the new single from Portland’s Urban Monroes, we get both.
Written by the Monroes’ Fran Kent, the song describes her discovery of a document from 1865 that marks her great-great-great-grandfather’s separation from the Union Army in Vicksburg, MS. William F. Perdue had spent three years as a soldier, having survived a brutal, bloody war that left more than 600,000 Americans dead, and almost twice as many wounded.
As the song continues, Fran tells of the emotions she felt in coming face-to-face with an ancestor she never knew, even as she held in her hand something he had carried personally as the war ended. She reports that it was a powerful thing, almost exactly 150 years after the document was drafted.
Here’s a taste…
William’s Still Alive will be included on the band’s next album, but is available now to radio programmers through Airplay Direct.
