Captain Zorikh sings "Red 5" at Big Apple Comic Con (to the tune of "Raw...

Here I am singing "Red 5" (to the tune of "Rawhide") during the break between the Presentation of Contestants and the Awarding of Prizes at my costume/cosplay contest at the Big Apple Comic Con on November 23, 2024.

Over the past few years, a paid sponsorship of the contest inluded judges who awarded prizes in addition to the usual "Applaus-O-Meter" process. This meant there was some "dead air time" in th emiddle of the event which I would usually fill with my band, The Death Star Repairmen." This time, however, that sponsor was not present, so we only needed to fill enough time for Cap Santiago to double check the order of the contestants' card to make sure they accurately reflected the applause of the audience. So I asked the audience whetehr they would rather sit in silence ot have a fun sing-along, and this was the result.

Costume Contest Big Apple Comic Con Captain Zorikh March 26, 2022

Here is the Big Apple Comic Con Costume contest that I hosted in March, including, halfway through, a performance by the Death Star Repairmen! The next convention and contest is coming up this Saturday, December 17, at the Hotel New Yorker

Jingle Bells (short version) Capt. Zorikh's Social Distance Holiday Musi...

Continuing or theme of winter/holiday music in honor of this season's great Nor'Easter, here is a shortened version of "Jingle Bells," done in a rockabilly style, outsind the Death Brewing Company tavern (which was, unfortunately, closed at the time)

Capt. Zorikh Social Distance Music Break #11.0: Capt. Z takes the Subway!

To make the next twelve minutes or so of "Phase 2" if the NYC reopening, here is my latest "Socially Distant Music Madness," This time a little shorter than usual,. Only three songs slammed into a subway ride on an empty subway car on the N train going from Astoria, Queens to Manhattan.

Enjoy!

Civil War Songs: The Union

As some of you may know, I am playing President Abraham Lincoln in "Honorable Distinction," a play produced by and performed at the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

The play is about the experience, struggles, and victories of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry and other famous and should-be-famous black heroes of the Civil War period, including Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Robert Smalls, and Martin Delaney. It is being done in salute to our veterans the weekend after Memorial Day. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.

This is my second year doing this show, and the second time playing Lincoln (though not in the same show). I played General William Tecumseh Sherman the last time I was in this play), and again, in addition to playing a major role, I am also supplying a number of costumes and playing in the band. As part of the band-playing, I have am advising the band and the production on certain songs that may fit into the show.

Here are YouTube videos of several Civil War songs that you may hear during the show, in one manner or another. This list is of Union songs only. Confederate songs are in the following post.

You can hear most of these songs performed in bombastic style by US military orchestras (you may search if you like), but I have tried to find versions that sound more like they are being sung by real people. One amazing thing about these songs is how adaptable they are to different arrangements, accents, instruments, and rhythms!

A second post will follow of Confederate songs

UNION SONGS
The Battle Cry of Freedom (Rally 'Round the Flag):
Perhaps the best-known song from the Union side after "Battle Hymn of the Republic." It was a big deal because it both glorified the Union and stated the cause of ending slavery.

This "parlor version" gives a sense of how it might have been sung by a gathering of family and friends around the piano in a well-to-do family's home (Not a dynamic you find often in modern recordings of Civil War songs):

The Battle Hymn of the Republic (John Brown's Body; Glory, Glory Hallelujah):
Like many folk songs, the lyrics have been changed and misinterpreted and adapted for different causes. Here are three different arrangements, each with a different mood:

March:
(Mid 20th century Mich Miller version)

Gospel:

Campfire:

Tramp Tramp, Tramp the Boys Go Marching:
This was about men in prisoner of war camps looking forward to rescue by their comrades. The melody is used for the Christian song, "Jesus Loves the Little Children," and apparently other songs all over  the world.

This version is probably sounds more like it might have been heard back in the day and has some great civil war pics in the video:

This version is played on a music box from 1904!

When Johnny Comes Marching Home:
Adapted from an old Irish tune, you might know this as "The Ants Go Marching One by One..."
Note the strength of the "Hurrah!" each time it comes around. This was a thing back in the day.

This song probably has the most fascinatingly adaptable melody of all Civil War songs.

As an example, this instrumental version is a fascinating progression from modest marching tune to the very definition of bombastic orchestral excess, and then ends in a haunting melody on a single fife.

My Old Kentucky Home:

It was not until I did the research for this show that I actually heard this whole song and learned that it is actually an anti-slavery song. Of it, Frederick Douglas himself wrote that the song "awakens sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and flourish": 

And here is a contemporary acapella vocal group doing their version, proving what Dave Alvin says, "It's all folk music."

The lyrics you hear at the Kentucky  Dereby are not the original ones, which is why the abolitionist heritage of this song my be surprising. But I found (thanks to the internet) those lyrick. Modern eyes and ears my find them quite stunning:

Original Lyrics (composed by Stephen Foster in 1853):

Verse 1:
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
‘Tis summer, the darkies are gay;
The corn-top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom,
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By ‘n’ by Hard Times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.

Chorus:
Weep no more my lady
Oh! weep no more today!
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,
For the Old Kentucky Home far away.

Verse 2:
They hunt no more for the possum and the coon,
On meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by the old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart,
With sorrow, where all was delight,
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.

Chorus

Verse 3:
The head must bow and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the darky may go;
A few more days, and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow;
A few more days for to tote the weary load,
No matter, ’twill never be light;
A few more days till we totter on the road,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.

So some see the show, hear the music, learn the history, and enjoy the acting, singing., an dancing talents at Mt Pisgah Baptist Church this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, May 30, 31, and June 1.

Next: CONFEDERATE TUNES!

BONUS!

Marching Through Georgia:
We are not actually doing this song anywhere in the play, but it is too important to leave out of a collection of Civil War songs.

This is the version of which I am most familiar. I love the spirit of the vocalists in this band! It does use a word or two that are no longer in common parlance among polite company, and some may consider it insensitive towards the sufferings of the South. But the event it describes did shorten the war. Not to get too political, I wonder how many such people complain about the atomic bombs being dropped on Japan? Would they object to a song called "Flying over Hiroshima?"

Tennessee Ernie Ford was part of the mid 20th-Century movement that sanitized and glorified the Civil War and its participants, particularly the Confederates. This version carefully omits any part of the song that might be politically sensitive or relates the suffering of the victims and the aggressive nature of the event.

Being as I sing this song as part of my "Time Travelling Bard" act, I was tickled to be able to actually play General Sherman in last year's version of this play!

P.S. There is a reenactment regiment of the 54th Mass in Washington D.C.!

Captain Zorikh ALL OVER I-Con this weekend!

Captain Zorikh ALL OVER I-Con convention next weekend!


That's right folks, there's hardly a corner of I-Con in which the Captain will not be found in this year!

First, on Saturday, there will be the annual lecture on the history of Armor and Chivalry at 2:00 PM in room A322 of the Field House at Suffolk County Community College Grant Campus in Brentwood. http://www.newyorkknights.captainzorikh.com/

Next, The Death Star Repairmen will be performing a full hour of music at 6 PM in the Islip Room of the Holiday Inn, Ronkonkoma. Http://www.captainzorikh.com/dsr

For the first time in five years I will not be performing in the Cabaret, but I will be helping judge the costume contest in the Masquerade Saturday night sometime between 10 PM and 12:30 at the Crystal Room of the Holiday Inn, Ronkonkoma.

Then I will be rushing over to screen the latest version of “Combat Twister and the further battles of Kim Fu Yu and Jenny Rancid” at 1:00 AM in the Renoir Room of the Islandia Marriott Hotel as part of the “I-Con After Dark” programming. Http://www.captainzorikh.com/combattwister

The next day, Sunday, I will be hosting the “Top Ten” discussion panel, an amusing hour in which we will be creating “top 10” lists about everything sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comics, medieval, and more!

Finally, immediately following that, on Sunday at 3 PM, yours truly will be lecturing on Captain Marvel Culture, the history of the many Captain Marvels, in room A315 of the Field House at Suffolk County Community College Grant Campus in Brentwood. Http://www.captainmarvelculture.com

And in between all those times I will be in the dealer's room selling my latest CD's, comics, videos and more!

Then its back to the real world, where we are still working on the next Captain Zorikh thing, “Redemption,” the movie that will do for submission grappling what “Rocky” did for boxing, “Karate Kid” did for youth karate, “Bad News Bears” did for little league baseball, and “Role Models” did for LARPing! Http://www.captainzorikh.com/redemption.

You can check out all about the convention, including admission directions, and other programming by going to http://www.iconsf.org.

See you there!

Captain Zorikh on City of Fame

It works best if you pause the video until it fully loads, the play it.

Go to http://cityoffame.newyork.com/watch/20d2abefe558796b9958/Cowboy-Zurich to comment on and rate this video.

Captain Zorikh's Birthday Gig Crawl!

CAPTAIN ZORIKH'S BIRTHDAY OPEN MIKE CRAWL!

Hi Friends and Fans. It's that time of year again! Yes, every September 6th I celebrate the anniversary of my first exposure to this fabulous mystery we call Life. This year it happens to fall upon this coming Saturday.

I have decided that this year I will do not one, but TWO open mikes!

The first one will be at Banjo Jim's at 700 E. 9th Street, just off Ave C. Sign up is at 2:45, and the music begins at 3:00 PM

The second one will be at Paddy Reilly's, the famous bar the Black 47 used to do weekly gigs at. It is located at 519 2nd Ave at 29th Street, and they know how to pour a proper Guinness! Sign up is at 5:30The action begins there at 6:00 PM.

If we last that long we might make it to the open jam at Fat Cat on 75 Christopher Street at 1:30 AM.

There will be a diner stop along the way at a place to be determined.

I would love to see as many people along this “crawl” as possible. Those of you who are musicians (and I know who you are) are invited to jam with me or to sign up and do your own open mike performance.

You can join in at any point along the crawl. Just call me at 917-865-1214 if you are not sure where I am at any particular moment to join (like if you want to join in the “to be determined” dinner stop).

Happy Birthday to Me! (If you were there last year, you know how old I am this year!)

Captain Zorikh
zorikh@juno.com
917-865-1214
http://www.captainzorikh.com