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The American Civil War lasted a little over four years, yet it has left a lasting legacy of songs, stories and legends in the hearts and minds of all Americans, both north and south. Popular music reached new heights just prior to the war with traveling minstrel shows, sheet music, and piano rolls making music more accessible to the general populace. . . . When Rhonda and I began performing our costumed historic epic, `The Blue and Gray in Black and White' in February, 1990, we initially used the more popular songs in our respective repertoires. As we did more research and learned more songs, we realized that there probably as many stories as there were participants in this great national tragedy. The list of songs continued to grow until we had many more songs than we could ever use in one particular concert. Making a choice as to which songs to include in this project was hard, but here is random sampling of what we do when the show is in full swing.' --Sparky Rucker