Michigan

Michigan does not have an official state waltz. They do, however, have a confusing state song situation which involves a waltz. In 1937, the Michigan legislature declared My Michigan by Giles Kavanagh (lyrics) and H. O'Reilly Clint (music) as the official state song. It was to replace an unofficial state song, Michigan, My Michigan, the original lyrics of which were written by Winifred Lyster in 1862 to honor Michigan men who had fought in the civil war.  It was sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum which is written in 3/4 time and can pass for a waltz. (It is also the tune for state songs in Maryland, Iowa and, at one time, Florida.)  Today, My Michigan, is virtually never performed and Michigan, My Michigan has become the de facto state song.  Interestingly, the lyrics of Michigan, My Michigan have been changed twice and the tune has been changed once.  You can find all of the lyrics in the excellent Wikipedia entry on Michigan, My Michigan or you can listen to them below.

The original 1862 version:

In 1886, Major James Long wrote new lyrics and shortened the song (six stanzas instead of ten).  He also de-emphasized, but did not eliminate, references to the civil war. It was still sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum. This version is a little rare, but you can hear it here:

In 1902, Douglas Malloch wrote new lyrics which eliminated all references to war and shortened it to a very singable four stanzas.  Otto Miessner contributed a new tune - still a waltz and not as singable or memorable as O Tannenbaum.  In 2003, Michigan Senate Bill 644 proposed making the Malloch/Miessner song the official state song but it never got out of committee. You can see a copy of the 1911 sheet music here and you can listen to it below.

The good people of Michigan have taken matters into their own hands.  If you happen to find a Michigan resident who thinks they know the state song, the odds are that you will hear the words written by Malloch but you won't hear the tune written by Miessner - you will hear O Tannenbaum.  An example follows.

Just one more complication - in 2013, Michigan State Representative Frank Foster submitted House Bill 4263 which would make Michigan Man by Mike Ridley (it is not a waltz) the official state song. That bill, too, has disappeared in committee.

With that introduction, let's looks at some real Michigan waltzes, and there are some nice ones.

The first to be reviewed is titled Waltz for the Michigan Missionary which was written and performed by Bryson Breakey. The song is totally unique in the world of state waltzes in that it is a "Music Video" as opposed to the typical "song captured in a video." It is an early example of the creativity of Kendall Lawren Rock from Poulsbo / Seattle, Washington - she made the video eight years ago while she was in high school. After this video was made, Kendall spent some time at Colorado College and has since been traveling the world with her Nikon camera - you can view her photos at her website or through her Instagram feed.  She continues to make creative "Music Videos", there is a relatively new one featuring Lemolo on YouTube, as well as making serious documentaries and videos that pay the rent.  Apart from the creative nature of the video, the song is quite enjoyable although not a waltz likely to be encountered in a ballroom.

There are six other live video performances of waltzes celebrating Michigan. First on the list is The Michigan Waltz composed by Bill LaVallie, Sr. in 1950 and performed below by his grandson, Jeff Krebs, a native of Michigan's upper peninsula.  Krebs often performs as "Papa Crow" and has a great kid's album titled Things That Roar.  His Michigan Waltz is available on his second album, Full Moon, Full Moon.

Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan has one of the biggest and best college radio stations in the U.S.A. - Impact88.9FMhttp://impact89fm.org/.  They broadcast a live show called "The Basement" on Thursday nights featuring local bands and artists.  In March, 2009, they featured Sam Corbin on the show and he performed his own Michigan's Waltz. Corbin is from Ypsilanti and has now issued three albums containing mostly songs he has written himself. A full arrangement of Michigan's Waltz appears on his second album and can be heard on YouTube but it is tough to top the live performance from "The Basement" below.  Corbin is accompanied in this video by guitarist and singer, Brian Westrin.

On April 15, 1921, William Harvey Breeding was born into a musical family in Washburn, Tennessee.  Tough times drove the family to Pontiac, Michigan in the 1930's.  Young William was a big fan of Zane Gray and took to calling himself Arizona, no last name - just Arizona, when he began singing in clubs as a teenager.  His younger brother joined him and they were known as the "Arizona Twins." His life is exceptionally well documented in a book, Detroit Country Music by Craig Maki and Keith Cady from which all this information comes. He took the last name of Weston, the book never explains why, and went on to long and varied life that always included music - as a singer, guitarist, band leader, disk jockey, record store proprietor or promoter.  He was a founder of the Michigan Country Music Association. He wrote a number of songs including Beautiful Waltz of Michigan.  He recorded the song in 1977, in a band led by Johnny Gimble, a member of Bob Wills famed Texas Playboys and always hoped it would become the state song of Michigan.  Sadly, that recording is long lost but fortunately Don Stidham has preserved the song with the video below.

The music industry, or at least those who write about the music industry, like to create new categories of music - Folk music became Roots music which became Americana music.  Here is a new one - Michigana music and if you want to hear real Michigana music, you go to Bob's Barn in Lake Odessa, Michigan.  There is a Michigana music jam there every Sunday at 4 pm.  You can get an overview of Michigana music by browsing Bob Warner's (yes, it is his "barn") YouTube channel.  In that channel, you find one of the authentic gems of Michigana music, Michigan Waltz by the late Garland (Gar) Buhrer (1928-2012) of Hudsonville, Michigan. Gar was locally well known for his fiddle playing and was inducted into the Michigan Fiddlers Hall of Fame in 2008.  He played with a group called the Singin' Strings and worked for Steelcase of Grand Rapids to pay the bills. It is just a guess, but the video below sounds like a cassette tape recording made in someone's living room during a jam.  That is Gar singing and probably him playing the fiddle. (Thanks to Ken Moore, President of the Michigan Fiddler's Association, for the information about Gar.)

In 1982, Judi Morningstar wrote Michigan Saturday Night. Judi is a composer, hammered dulcimer player and jewelry maker from Highland, Michigan.  Michigan Saturday Night was her first composition with vocals. It was recorded by the band Just Friends (Rosemary Kornacki, Lori Cleland, Judi Morningstar and Cecelia Webster) in 1986 on a cassette tape titled A Dulcimer Holiday. You can find a score for the song here. You can hear Just Friends perform the song in the video below from a 2013 meeting of the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) in Lansing, Michigan where Judi and her husband, Glen, received a CDSS lifetime achievement award. You may also hear the song if you point your browser to Blue Lake Public Radio on Saturday night at 8:00 - Michigan Saturday Night is used as theme music for the program of the same name, hosted by Steve Albert. (Thanks to Jim McKinney for bringing Michigan Saturday Night to the attention of this blog and to Judi Morningstar for the link to the video and the information about the song).

In this collection of Michigan waltz videos, only one cover was encountered (a cover is a performance of a song by someone other than the originator).  The original of the cover is Michigan Waltz by Kitty Donohoe. She first recorded the song, along with other Michigan related songs she had written in 1987 and with a cassette tape and accompanying book for sale made a tour of Michigan elementary schools singing her songs.  She added a few songs and reissue it as a CD in 2004. You can still buy the book and the recording (now digital) from Amazon.  Donohoe is a very talented singer/songwriter from the Detroit area who is perhaps best known for the song she wrote after the 9/11 tragedy, There Are No Words. Her voice and style are very reminiscent of Cheryl Wheeler and it happens that she has opened concerts for Wheeler (and for Doc Watson and David Bromberg and quite a few others).  Listen to the original below.

The cover of Ms. Donohoe's Michigan Waltz is unusual.  Her songs continue to be song in Michigan elementary schools and in 2011, a young third grader, Gabe Puzio, learned to sing the song at school.  Two years later with some piano lessons under his belt, he decided to add some chords to the song and created his own piano arrangement.  His music teacher was so impressed that she had his song recorded and the YouTube video below is the result. This blog is impressed also, the young man has quite a good ear for music. (Thanks to a series of people who helped uncover this story - Scott Banks who made the video, Gwendolyn Stewart for identifying the source of the song, and Gabe's mother, Staci, for sharing the story.)

Next in this series is a "live" video of a record player playing Michigan Waltz on a 45 rpm record by the Pavlik Brothers. The story behind this song is not known but it probably involves a Detroit rockabilly singer called Johnny Powers.  Johnny's real name was John Leon Joseph Pavlik and he eventually became co-owner of Sun Records, a full-service recording company in Detroit in the 1950's.  This isn't Johnny's kind of music but his father and his father's family were also musicians and played for dances in the Detroit area.  It seems likely that this is Johnny's dad and uncles with Johnny, perhaps, joining them on guitar.

In 1925, John Philip Sousa of march fame wrote Coeds of Michigan.  According to the Michigan Marching Band website, Sousa always stayed with the University of Michigan band director, Wilfred Wilson, when he visited Ann Arbor.  Wilson asked Sousa to write a march for the Michigan Marching band but Sousa responded with a waltz instead because "Michigan already has a great march." While best known for his marches, Sousa wrote a eleven waltzes, many of them written for his operettas. You can hear his Coeds of Michigan waltz played by the U.S. Marine Band under the direction of  Lieutenant Colonel Jack T. Kline in the Heritage of John Philip Sousa Collection in the video below.

There are a few additional Michigan waltzes to be found on the internet but no video or audio files are currently available.  They include:

• The Michigan Waltz, a polka style waltz written by Allen Mesowski and Nellie Rowloff, recorded in 1957 on the Rambler label by Jeanneane (vocal) and the Ramblers.


• Michigan Waltz, an instrumental, composer unknown, recorded in 1951 on the Decca label by Georgie Cook and his orchestra.


• Michigan Waltz, a cowboy waltz written and sung by Earl Peterson in 1950 on the Nugget label which he founded with his mother. This was his first record. Earl, known as "Michigan's Own Singing Cowboy" is accompanied by his band, The Sons of the Golden West. Earl later recorded on both the Sun and Columbia labels.


• Michigan Waltz, words by Wanda Force, music by Buddy Bregman and sung by Carl Berth with BIG JOE and his Moonlite Drifters.  Recorded in 1961 on the Delta label of Saginaw, Michigan.

Not included in this blog are many Michigan waltzes which were apparently never recorded but appear in copyrights.  Some were published but most were unpublished.  This is not a complete copyright search, just a search through those copyright documents for which full text searching is available through the Internet Archive (a wonderful resource).

Beautiful Michigan Waltz, words and music by Colin P. McLeod, 1956
Michigan Waltz, words and music by Fred Elwin, 1952
Michigan Waltz, Don Ray Coates, 1952
Michigan Waltz, James Nobles, 1952
The Michigan Waltz, Theodore Bruce Rider, 1951
The Michigan Waltz, words by Sidney Holden and music by Harry D. Squires, 1953
Michigan Waltz, Sam Messenhelmer, 1955
Michigan Waltz, Frances B. Roy, 1955
Michigan Waltz by Michael Farenga, 1955
The Michigan Waltz, words by Edward W. Boyle and music by Kenny Roberts, 1959
Michigan Waltz by Fred J. Boyle, 1959
Michigan Waltz by L. Roberts, 1959
Michigan Waltz, words and music by Katherine Gertrude Harwood, 1954
Michigan Waltz, by John Edward Haselbarth, 1954
Michigan Waltz, words and music by Louis August Shefke, 1949
The Michigan Waltz, words by Oliver Booth and music by Don Deadman, 1971
Michigan Waltz, N.B. Vasilopulos, 1921
Michigan Waltz, words and music by Dallas V. Stacks, 1961
Michigan Waltz, words and music by Johnny F. Wolfe, 1961
Michigan Waltz, by W. Miles, 1909.
Michigan Waltz by William Wellington Noble in 1952

A search in Google Books also uncovers some additional versions of Michigan waltzes:

• Advertisement for Michigan Waltz, piano sheet music by Staab published in 1868 by J.L. Peters.


• In 1927, Joe Lanin's Waltz Kings recorded a Michigan Waltz on GEX 555-A, reported in the book The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942.


• The March 20, 1971 issue of Billboard Magazine makes reference to a record containing Michigan Waltz and Michigan Polka by Big Daddy Lackowski.  No other trace of the record was found.


• According to the Michigan Folklife Reader by Dewhurst and Lockwood, published in 1987, C. J. Whitney wrote Borders of Lake Michigan Waltz in 1866.

For those who have made it all the way to the bottom, here are lyrics and a simplified score of Papa Crow's grandfather's The Michigan Waltz. 

Lyrics

In the north woods of Michigan,
Land that I love,
We sat beneath the northen tree with the moon up above.
And then we quarreled. 
Oh now, I know it was my fault
While the band across the lake so blue played the Michigan waltz

Now why did we quarrel
Oh why, why did we part
Come back, my darling, for you are 
Breaking my heart

For I'm sad and I'm lonesome
I am heart broken and blue.
And when i hear the Michigan waltz,  
Darling I think of you.

Well I've traveled on down south dear
Away out east and out west
and I can't forget you darling
Though I'll do my best.
And I long for the day when we will be sweethearts again
and I'll sing you this song dear, 
Good old Michigan.

Now why did we quarrel
Oh why, why did we part
Come back, my darling, for you are 
Breaking my heart

For I'm sad and lonesome
Why, I'm heart broken and blue.
And when I hear the Michigan waltz,  
Darling I think of you. 

When I hear the Michigan waltz,
Darling I think of you.

And a simplified score:

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