By Isabell Macrina
Hometown Weekly Staff
The history of veterans in this country is long and sordid. They give a great service to this country, but their experiences after the fact have been mixed throughout history. Musicians Jon and Li Waterman took the stage at Walpole Public Library to bring history to life with songs that explore the experiences and sacrifices veterans experienced and ring in Memorial Day weekend.
The night starts off with the duo performing a song in honor of and emulating Elvis Presley, who was a veteran himself. He was drafted in the war during a peak of popularity and, despite being offered a role to sing for the troops instead of fighting, his manager Colonel Tom Barker insisted he served. Ironically, Colonel Baker’s title was honorary and he didn’t serve himself.
Jon and Li specialize in songs that share and honor history, panning genres from classic rock to something far folksier. They bring the tragedy of events like the Battle of Lexington, but from the perspective of before the Battle of Concord. They also brought up the Sultana disaster, where a ship of over one-thousand soldiers and officers exploded and sank down the Mississippi River.
They celebrated lesser-known figures like the Harlem Hellfighters, the only black battalion allowed to serve combat positions in war. Among them was James Reese Europe, who was the first black man to lead a band at Carnegie Hall, and later became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. After the Armistice of World War 1, where they insisted everyone keep fighting until eleven in the morning, Private Augustin Trébuchon was the last French soldier to die. Joseph Medicine Crow became the last War Chief of the Crow tribe by accomplishing four things when he was a soldier in war; touching an enemy without killing him, taking an enemy's weapon, leading a successful war party, and stealing an enemy's horse. Li sang the song about Crow and surprised everyone with powerful vocals.
They also got personal, celebrating a woman who always asked for them to play Stardust because it was a song her and her brother always danced to, before he went off to war. Jon Waterman wrote a song “Last Dance to Stardust” to honor them. They ended with a song about home, one Jon wrote after the passing of his father who was a Korean War veteran. “Blues Before the Dawn” came from the soul and celebrated someone with such an impact on his life, and the experiences he went through.
Memorial Day brings to light the memories of wars past and encourages people to honor veterans and soldiers fallen, but it is also important to look at how Veterans are treated today. Benefits don’t always go the way they should, disabilities that are life changing, and bringing home the trauma in their own heads. But there is hope, hope that we can do better.
