{"id":400,"date":"2014-09-08T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T00:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/?p=400"},"modified":"2014-09-08T00:53:57","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T00:53:57","slug":"star-spangled-banner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/2014\/09\/08\/star-spangled-banner\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Spangled Banner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hard to believe that FSK wrote The Star Spangled Banner 200 years ago! The song is ingrained into the American psyche and tied intimately to A Roadkill Opera<\/strong><\/em>. Really.<\/p>\n

Consider this:<\/p>\n

Every performance of Roadkill Live!!!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>(the original 1988 sketch comedy revue in Jackson, Wyoming) and every performance of Roadkill’s Greatest Hits!!!<\/strong><\/em> (the 1992 revival, also in Jackson) ended with a performance of The Star Spangled Banner. Performed by an honorably-discharged veteran of the U.S. Navy. By harmonica. Through his nose. Yes, really.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Ed Bachtel plays the U.S. Nasal Academy arrangement of the national anthem, by harmonica, through his nose, in this screen-grab from the 1988 Roadkill Live!!!<\/strong> Note the Mae West life jackets on the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The more I thought about it, the more remarkable I found the demonstration of Ed’s love of country. So it became the point of the finale of A Roadkill Opera<\/strong><\/em>. It is alluded to on the program cover for the 2012 workshop concert. But there are more ties to the song.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
The program cover for the 2012 workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera. <\/strong>It serves as a puzzle, too. Can you spot the X things wrong on this cover? Compare it to the poster that serves as the cover for the Roadkill Opera <\/strong>sheet music published in 2013, below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo of the Hatch Show Print poster for the workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera<\/strong> at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, the music director and conductor for the 2012 workshop of\u00a0A Roadkill Opera<\/strong><\/em> also sang The Star Spangled Banner<\/a> at a Washington Nationals baseball game. Yes, indeed! He sounded so good, we drafted him to sing tenor (the part of Dave, the musician) in the 2013 studio recording of A Roadkill Opera<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/a>
Four members of open5ths sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” <\/a>before a Washington Nationals-Milwaukee Brewers game on April 17, 2010, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. From left to right is Peter Rogers, bass; Ed Hoover, tenor; Jeff Dokken, tenor; and Andy Pulliam, bass.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sure, trained singers can carry the tune by themselves, but part of what makes the song so \u00a0special is that it sounds good when a crowd sings it. Maybe you and I don’t sing much of the range, but together, we’ve got it covered.<\/p>\n

Play Ball!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hard to believe that FSK wrote The Star Spangled Banner 200 years ago! The song is ingrained into the American psyche and tied intimately to A Roadkill Opera. Really. Consider this: Every performance of Roadkill Live!!!\u00a0(the original 1988 sketch comedy revue in Jackson, Wyoming) and every performance of Roadkill’s Greatest Hits!!! (the 1992 revival, also … Continue reading Star Spangled Banner<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroadkillopera.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}