In High Cotton: Favorite Camp Songs of the Civil War

Here are more minstrel tunes, plantation melodies and military airs that were beloved and familiar to hundreds of thousands of young men from north and south. These songs were as much a part of them as knapsack, bedroll or bible when they left civil life behind to take up arms to fight and die for the causes they believed in during America's great Civil War.

IN HIGH COTTON carries the listener back more than 150 years to hear music that was essentially laying the foundations of American popular music in the years leading up to the War Between the States. You'll hear timeless melodies created by American musical icons Stephen Foster and Daniel Emmett, such as THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME (SWANEE RIVER) and THE BLUE TAIL FLY. Songs about life on the nation's earliest highways of commerce - America's mighty rivers. You'll hear minstrel melodies that were adapted by the soldiers to reflect the experiences of war and by making fun of those hardships in song, made them easier to bear.

The 2nd South Carolina String Band is recognized far and wide for their ability to breathe new life into music muted only by the passage of time and fashion - great music from our nation's turbulent past - making it exciting and enjoyable to the 21st century listener. IN HIGH COTTON is bursting with the same exuberant spirit that this band has always been famous for.