Father Abraham

Serendipity on Lincoln's 213th Birthday

Hi! Welcome to “A Body of Work.” It’s the every other Tuesday space here on “Living in a Body” where I dig deep into Hal history and pull out a musical gem. Thanks for being here! Hal

Father Abraham

It was the morning of Saturday, February 12. I needed to decide what song to present for the next installment of “A Body of Work” when an amazing sequence of events unfolded. Today’s episode chronicles the incredible serendipity that lead to my made-in-heaven song choice, “Father Abraham.”

For years now, I’ve kept a little Don Drumm sun bowl full of USB thumb drives. On Saturday, I decided that it would be a good day to take a deep dive into those drives to see what kind of “Hal history” we might uncover.

A Bowl Full of Hal History

As I prepared for the expedition, I realized that before I could begin, my bedside shelf would need some reorganizing. If I was gonna spend the afternoon with those USB’s, my docking station needed to be within an much easier reach of the bed. It soon struck me that a velcro strap or a zip-tie would be the perfect solution for holding that docking station in place. Saturday is Arnel’s day off, so I ventured down the stair lift on my own. On a mission to find a zip-tie, I hopped on my super nice electric wheelchair and I “low key glided” into the back room.

A zip-tie - the perfect solution.

When I got there, I searched through some random bins. I found tools, cables, kitchen utensils and some other stuff that should’ve been thrown away years ago. I eventually found the zip-ties but ALSO, I spotted two ancient SD cards. (A 1GB card and a 128MB card) I was intrigued, so I slid them into my pocket and headed back upstairs on my own personal incline. (Thank you GoFundMe)

I found two ancient SD cards. OMG. What happens next?!

Once I settled in with my newly zip-tied docking station, I found a few gems on those thumb drives. (I’ll tell you about those another time) After dinner, I ventured into the SD cards. The very first file that I opened on the 1GB card was an unnamed audio file — STE-000BA.wav

Not very exciting on first glance.

When I pushed play, I was so pleased to hear the young voices of the Summit Children’s Choir singing my original composition, “Father Abraham.” You see, in the early 2000’s, I had a wonderful decade-long tenure working alongside Frank and Arlene Jacobs, the founders of the Summit Choral Society. In 2009, Frank asked me to compose a song for a concert celebrating the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The concert would happen on Oct. 24, 2009 and would feature two world premieres — 200 children (with harmonicas) performing my work and the Masterworks Chorale (with orchestra) performing Dorn Younger’s “Lincoln: A Symphonic Tribute.” You can watch the performance of “Father Abraham” below, but be sure to read on to discover the rest of the magic!

Pleased with my SD card discovery, I immediately recognized that this would be a fine enough song choice for today’s episode, but wouldn’t it be better to save this song to coincide with President’s Day or the anniversary of the emancipation proclamation or better yet, Lincoln’s birthday? Well… just for the heck of it, I googled “abraham lincoln birthday.” Guess what I discovered…

On Saturday, Feb 12th, I googled “abraham lincoln birthday”

Isn’t that incredible? I mean, what are the chances?! What are the chances that on this day of all days, I find those SD cards that have been hiding out of sight for so many years. I don’t know about you, but I was blown away.

Today, in celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 2013th birthday, I present to you my original song, commissioned in 2009 by the Summit Choral Society, Father Abraham. I hope you enjoy.

Abraham Lincoln drives a freedom train
In a couple o’ days he’s gonna break these chains
And carry me away, no more a slave.
Lately, I’ve been thinkin’ he’s a mighty man
With a miracle plan to fill that train
And drive it all the way to the freedom land.

My country ‘tis of thee how long will it be
‘till all my children are free?
So long with these chains on I can’t hardly breathe.
How long will this skin burden me?
Here comes that train!

O father, I know you.
I gotta believe it’s true
You’re the freedom man.
You’re Father Abraham.

For my brothers and sisters too,
This freedom is comin' soon.
He’s a righteous man.
He’s Father Abraham.

O mother, I’m saying to you
These slav’ry days are through.
We’re hand in hand
with Father Abraham Lincoln.

I’m holdin’ the hand of a brother’s hand
Who’s holdin the hand of a mother.
She’s holdin’ the hand of a child’s hand
Who’s holdin the hand of another.
He’s holdin’ the hand of a sister’s hand

On our way to the Freedom Land.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for listening. It means a lot to me. As usual, I’ll be back on Saturday for more “Living in a Body.” Have a great Tuesday. I appreciate you. ❤️ Hal