Annotation:Band of Freemen
BAND OF FREEMEN. American, March (4/4 time). USA, Pa. D Major. Standard. AB. From the Pennsylvania fifing tradition. The title comes from a song called "The Old Granite State," popularized in the early 1800's by the Hutchinson family of singers, and which had a repeated chorus-line of "We're a band of freeman." The tune was used for several spirituals and camp-meeting songs, especially by the Millerites. Bayard (1981) "emphatically" disputes Winston Wilkinson's assertion that the tune is the air or the Irish reel "Take Her Out and Air Her." He also thinks that the tune may possibly be a derivative of a Scots march by Oswald, "Tulip (The)."
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