Broad stripes and bright stars

Jul 2, 2011 Music Info

ONLY IN THE WORLD HERALD

Oh, say can you sing the national anthem? Whose broad stripes and bright stars … probably you could manage that part without making the children plug their ears and the dog throw himself o’er the ramparts. And you don’t have to be especially brave to sing … were so gallantly streaming. But would your voice still be gleaming after the perilous climb up the scale to claim and hold the rockets’ red glare, and then ascend to heights beyond in the la-and of the free? Not likely, unless you’re a pro at The Star-Spangled Banner like such Nebraskans as Dawn Pawlewski Krogh, Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Jimmy Weber and Heidi Joy. It’s a hard song to sing, said Krogh, opera director at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, who has sung the national anthem at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field in Phoenix and numerous political events. Everybody can’t just pick it up and sing it.

Maybe that’s why more people don’t sing along with the anthem, and why every once in a while there’s talk of changing the national anthem to a different song, such as America the Beautiful. Occasionally a controversy also kicks up when somebody avoids the anthem on grounds that it extols violence, such as in June, when the Mennonite Goshen College in Indiana ended its brief experiment with playing the song at sporting events.

It also could be that people still don’t know the words, even after the three-year National Anthem Project set out to teach Americans the song and encourage them to sing it. That project followed a 2004 Harris poll that showed 61 percent of Americans didn’t know all the words to the first verse.

Christina Aguilera blanked on some of the lyrics at the 2011 Super Bowl, becoming the latest celebrity to botch (or butcher) The Star-Spangled Banner.

Really, there’s not that much to remember. We sing only one verse of the four that Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814 (during the War of 1812) when he penned the poem that was later put to music. It became the national anthem in 1931.

It’s commonly sung at the beginning of sporting events, which may be where most Americans are most familiar with it. You’re probably hearing it a lot this weekend, at fireworks shows and baseball games.

Omaha musician Dan Cerveny helps choose national anthem singers each year for the College World Series. Besides flubbing the lyrics or appearing unable to handle the gaze of 25,000 people, one thing will rule out a singer right away: extraneous vocal stylings.

We’re not looking for a lot of vocal acrobatics, Cerveny said. That’s not the purpose of singing the national anthem at the College World Series. We’d like people to do a nice arrangement, not show off. … This isn’t karaoke night. You’re not up there to impress anybody. This is about singing our national anthem and paying respect to our country.

Cerveny said it’s not only the CWS anthem committee but the general public who have those expectations. Performers don’t have to do the tune just straight. They can vary notes or pace. But there’s a line people generally don’t like to hear crossed.

Cerveny cited Heidi Joy, who now lives in Florida, and the Air Force’s Jimmy Weber as regular CWS anthem singers who do a great job.

Joy, a professional singer, began performing the national anthem several years ago at Creighton University men’s basketball games. Now she performs it about 20 times a year for sporting events, fireworks shows and other occasions.

Over the years I’ve just kind of cultivated my own take on it, she said. It’s my time to feel patriotic about my country and express that patriotism.

Before singing, Joy locates the Stars and Stripes in the ballpark, arena or whatever venue. That’s where she focuses.

I just look at the Stars and Stripes and just feel proud to be an American, she said. I want people to feel goose bumps, and maybe tears, or those internal tears.

It was a somber occasion that inspired an arrangement of the national anthem that Jimmy Weber performs. Weber is a singer and songwriter from Omaha. He is superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Heartland of America Band, stationed at Offutt Air Force Base.

Weber has opened for entertainers such as Tim McGraw and Keith Urban. He has performed for soldiers overseas on several occasions. On one such trip, over the Christmas holiday in 2003-04, he was on the Stars for Stripes tour in Iraq and Kuwait with country singers Jolie Edwards and Craig Morgan. On one flight between shows, a casket containing the body of a fallen soldier was placed on the C-130 transport plane carrying the entertainers.

That’s when a guitar-based version of the national anthem began tracking in Weber’s mind.

It was a very quiet flight, he said. It was going through my head, very slow. … The lyrics took on a special meaning that night.

Weber worried that people would be offended by his accompanying the national anthem with guitar. But it has struck a positive chord.

I always think of that casket any time I perform it, he said.

For as little as Americans appear to know the song, they apparently have strong preferences about how it should be sung.

A lot of people do get riled up about that, Krogh said. They feel very patriotic about their national anthem.

She was the Nebraska winner in the National Anthem Project’s 2006 trip to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. She went to Washington, D.C., to participate in a star-spangled sing-along with thousands of students.

When I’m leading it and I ask people to sing along with me, and they do, it’s the biggest thrill to hear those voices coming back at you, Krogh said.

Her advice to the untrained masses: Like the song says, this is the home of the brave.

Sing along! she said. It doesn’t matter what you sound like. Sing along, loud and strong.

Edot Music
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