Eric Wolfson’s “Ann Rutledge Blues” Inspires Scholarly Lincoln Article Published Online!
It is one of the true honors of my musical career to have my good friend, fellow songwriter, and existential spiritualist/poet/philosopher J.J. Hayes compose an essay inspired by one of my songs, Upon the Significance of Eric Wolfson’s Ann Rutledge Blues: A Response to Barry Schwartz, which he submitted and has been published online at the Lincoln Group website.
Check it out:
http://www.lincolngroup.org/literary-article-hayes.html
And if yer unfamiliar with my song that inspired this epic contemplation of the mystic chords of memory, it’s the first song up on my Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/ericwolfson
“Ann Rutledge Blues” is a song about a muse and the type of impact a muse can have, even when they are entirely unaware of their influence. This idea has always been at the core of the Lincoln/Rutledge myth - that Rutledge’s premature death was necessary to
fueled Lincoln’s rise to greatness - and to think that my song about a muse can in turn become a muse for another thought-provoking creative study is the greatest compliment my work could receive.
Thanks so much to J.J. and hope you all enjoy.
Eric.
PS: Fer those of you who want the historical truth - as best we can figure it out - check out Joshua Wolf Shenk’s 2005 book Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness; for those of you who want the romantic dream, check out John Ford’s 1939 film Young Mr. Lincoln, featuring a young Henry Fonda in the title role. (And fer those of you who don’t have the time - or the Netflix - to actually watch the whole thing, here’s a YouTube clip of the pertinent Abe & Ann material, at least until someone takes it down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcuUvtenx6w&feature=PlayList&p=677F2711E3202F96&index=1.)