Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Let the Eagles Soar

If you�re headed for the big inauguration today (my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail), don�t forget the longjohns. It�s a chilly morning on the East Coast of George Bush�s America so you might want to phone in sick and do the C-Span thing instead.

Forget the drama of whether Chief Justice Rehnquist actually shows up and survives the ceremony, the big news for me is this year�s musical program, which was put together by none other than the formerly powerful Trent �Things Would Have Been a Lot Different If the South Had Won the War� Lott. And what a dandy program it is.

The highlight should come early when Guy Hovis, a vocalist from Tupelo, Miss., (not to be confused with that other singer from Tupelo), an aide to Senator Lott who used to perform with his wife Rena on the Lawrence Welk show, sings �Let the Eagles Soar,� a song written by soon-to-be former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The song is so excruiatingly wretched that Dave Letterman managed to get three months of laughs out of playing a tape of Ashcroft singing part of it.

Also lending their voices to the event will be the choir from Alcorn State University in Mississippi, a group comprised of 48 music majors �known� (their press release says) for their traditional choral music and gospel spirituals. And there�s Wintley Phipps, a gospel singer who is also the founder the U.S. Dream Academy, an online Christian academic resource, and Tech Sergeant Bradley Bennett, a native of Kent, Ohio, who is also a member of the Air Force musical group, the "Singing Sergeants."

True, there will be a couple of moments of highbrow entertainment; opera singers Susan Graham and Denyce Graves will represent the eastern liberal culture lobby although they�ll be singing hymns in keeping with Red State tastes. Graham was presumably picked because she hails from the president�s pretend hometown of Midland, Texas and Graves, a mediocre singer on a good day, was presumably picked because she�s�ur�for the same reason that Colin Powell was picked to be the most misused Secretary of State in American history.

All this, plus the Marine Band, the Naval Academy Men's and Women's Glee Clubs, the Army Herald Trumpets and the Navy Sea Chanters. Aren�t you sorry you couldn�t come up with 50 grand or so to snag an invitation?

posted by Jerry Bowles 1/20/2005