"Shenandoah" seems to have created considerable (healthy I hope) controversy on VA-HIST about it suitability for some flavor of Virginia State Song. Lest you have any doubts, I am for it, so what I have to say will be biased. But let me make three observations. 

Observation #1 - It is music first that we relate to whatever. Words usually come second. Our neighbors across the Potomac took to the old German tune Oh Tannenbaum - note that it had nothing to do with the State of Maryland. The excised the words they did not like from a poem about Maryland (like 'Avenge the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore') and embraced the remainder as the state song. To our west, Kentuckians rephrased references to ethnic minorities and kept the best of Stephen Foster's My Old Kentucky Home. I think it sad that the Virginia Legislature caved in on the music of Carry Me Back to Old Virginia. The words were out of date, but I think keeping the tune would have been an honor to James Bland and Blacks. In fairness however, I suspect that the music as well as the words had become repulsive to many.

Observation #2 - "Contests" for state and national songs generally fail. So it is not surprising that contests for Virginia State Song have failed. Other examples:

Dixie - During the Civil war and for at least two decades after it concluded, efforts were made to adopt more appropriate words. There were dozens of sets written. All failed.

Our National Anthem - I understand there have been several national efforts to get something other than The Star Spangled Banner. All have failed, and we still strain to sing that second part.

The only 'success' of which I am aware was The Army Air Corps Song. In 1938 General Hap Arnold proposed a contest, and 600 entries were submitted. Capt. Robert Crawford won. I understand there is a 'Crawford Hall' at Langely AFB to his honor.

Observation #3 - Adoption must come from popular usage. God Save the King, Rule Britannia, et al were not written to be THE English National song. But I hearken back to ca. 1981 and those stirring shots on the dock at Southampton as the HMS Queen Elizabeth in battle-paint, sailed for the Falklands with British soldiers and Marines, and the crowd singing RULE BRITANNIA.

Yankee Doodle started life as a parody on clumsy ill-uniformed American militia in the French and Indian War, yet by the end of the Revolution, was a 100% American tune, and played in such honor by the French Band of the Royal DuPont Regiment at Yorktown.

The first American patriotic song was The Liberty Song..... "Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all....." But it started 100% English as Hearts of Oak.

We all know what Francis Scott Key had been doing earlier that fateful evening in Baltimore Harbor when he penned a poem and set it to the tune that came to mind - an English drinking song... To Anacreon in Heaven. 

Lets's look at our service songs. I've already mentioned the unique success of The Air Force Song. 

The Caissons go Rolling Along, came from (eventually General) Edmund Gruber (interestingly enough a descendent of Silent Night's Franz Gruber) when he was stationed in the Philippines in 1908. Twice since WWII, the Army has held contests to replace it. By then there were 140 sets of lyrics. Bud Arberg wrote more general words a couple of decades ago "The Army goes Rolling Along", but I daresay that whenever the it is sung, you will hear/sing about the caissons. 

Anchor's Aweigh started life at the Naval Academy as part of the tradition of Bandmaster Charles A. Zimmerman to write a march for each graduating class. It was quickly picked up by the entire Navy. 

The Coast Guard was looking for a song in 1927 when Captain von Boskerck worked out the tune for Semper Paratus while in the Aleutians. It did not become popular until WWII when Rudy Vallee (oldsters will recall him and The Maine Stein Song) was the bandmaster of the Long Beach, CA coast guard band, and arranged it. 

I've saved the best til last, since it speaks to what I perceive as the #1 complaint about SHENANDOAH - "it does not mention Virginia." The tune of what we know at The Marines' Hymn started life in 1867 by Jacque Offenbach for his comic opera Genevieve de Brabant.

And that brings us back to SHENANDOAH. Senator Chuck Colgan has given us this tune on a silver platter. It means 'Virginia' to me, and thanks to Jimmy Stewart's movie of the same name, I think it means 'Virginia' to a lot of folks. I am going to do whatever I can to push it as an interim song, and since I was told today that the two leading Democratic and Republican presidential 'possibles' at this point are Virginians, I hope to hear it played by the US Marine Band as they march down Pennsylvania Avenue in the next innagaural parade.

There must be others of you out there who want to be part of the grass-roots movement, and I encourage you. Get in touch with me at [log in to unmask], until somebody sets up a website. My offer still holds to send the full-band arrangement of MARCH, BAND OF THE SHENANDOAH to any band in Virginia. If you want to send me your own lyrics, do so, noting they are copyrighted (for your own protection and possible later glory) in your name. I shall distribute whatever sets of lyrics that I have at any given point along with the band arrangement. If you need the tune to be inspired, send me a note and I'll send you an MP3 rendition of the last strain of the trio.

I certainly don't mean to give short shrift to those of you who have other druthers. There is a lot of Virginia music out there- Virginia Dreaming, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, my old classmate at Uva, Bill Clifton. I encourage you to mount your own campaign for your favorite song. Some states have two - Tennessee has four. But SHENANDOAH is a bird in hand, and at this point worth considerably more than those other birds in the bushes.

"Go full bore, for Shenandoah" (See why I don't write lyrics :))

Randy Cabell

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