

A Letter from Sullivan Ballou
Enjoy this complete live performance of one of our favorite selections from the tour - "A Letter from Sullivan Ballou" by John Kander. It was recorded at our concert in Greenwood, MS at Greenwood Church of the Nativity. I had a bit of b-roll lying around so I decided I would try to be Terrence Malick! Maybe I should stick to being Jonathan Levin, but at least the music speaks for itself! #americanportraits


"I am Communing with God, my Country and Thee."
"I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country and thee." Written by 32-year-old Major Sullivan Ballou, a successful attorney from Providence, Rhode Island, to his 24-year-old wife, Sarah, this letter proved to be as prophetic as it was universal and poetic. Written just a week before his death in the First Battle of Bull Run on the plains of Manassas, Sullivan leaves behind a touchingly eloquent legacy and stark reminde


From the Silk Road to the Big Apple
Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and proud nomadic history, whose musical traditions are as varied, rich and vibrant as the land and people who gave them life. Out of this diverse ethnic milieu comes Aza Sydykov, possibly the country’s most gifted and successful classical pianist to date, whose fate was intertwined with the establishment of his homeland’s independence. While Kyrgyzstan was formally annexed to Russia in 1876, the Kyrgyz people


Grand Mama was a Cornbread-Cooking Queen
“I came to Mississippi for the weekend, I wasn’t going to stay”, says Arthur Davis (‘Mr. D’), owner of the Old Country Store Restaurant in Lorman, MS. Driving from his home in Fort Hills, Florida, he was just delivering a car to his son who was attending nearby Alcorn State University, when he saw the old building on the side of Highway 61. Mr. D says he saw the potential in the place as well as the natural beauty of the area. Now over 20 years later, he has received accol