Mandolin Orange...

Here's a band you should listen to. They call themselves Mandolin Orange. A guy I jammed with once down in Lake Jackson  (we hit it off great musically but have not been able to play again) tipped me to them. He found them I think because he got a mandolin for Christmas. This group that hails from North Carolina and did cover some classic bluegrass stuff but there is a lot more going on here songwriter wise. As they said at the Railbird Festival where we saw them they are not afraid to stand up at a festival and play a slow sad song.  

Check them our on this cut. It's about the Civil War.

This subject makes me think of one of my old ancestors, Elam Albritton who was a Confederate vet of the Civil War. He rode off with some other kin in the 7th Texas Calvary at age 17, had never owned a slave and as far as I can tell the last time an Albritton owned a slave was 1762, fought in the battle of Mansfield , La. came home and died in 1910 with "Come Be Blessed" and the Gates of Heaven engraved on his tombstone in the old McKindree Cemetery. In 1924 his wife Mary applied for a Confederate pension at the Angelina County Courthouse. I don't know if she got it.  His fellow soldiers who lived in Angelina County wrote on the application he was a good soldier and a good citizen after the war. 

If I can't get a slow sad song out of these facts I am no good at all. 

This song they say is about the Statue of Liberty. 

Get you a mandolin. Listen to good music Try and figure out what your ancestors were up to.