The Oak Ridge Ridge Boys : National Anthem Project

By Amy Green

(c) 2006 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.

Oh say, can you sing our nation’s anthem?

Most Americans can’t. In fact, two out of three don’t know the words, a 2004 Harris poll found, and many more don’t even recognize “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem. Fewer still can name the anthem’s composer (Francis Scott Key) or the arduous battle that inspired it (at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812).

To remedy this, The National Association for Music Education (MENC) is staging the National Anthem Project, a multi-year campaign to renew interest in the anthem and build support for the school music programs where most Americans learn the song.

Four-time CMA Awards winner The Oak Ridge Boys have signed on as the official musical ambassadors for the effort, teaching the anthem to anyone willing to listen – at sports games, schools, concerts – almost anywhere. “You see people who are more worried about hanging on to their drinks than taking their caps off (during the national anthem),” said Richard Sterban, bass singer for The Oak Ridge Boys which originated in 1943.

MENC organized the project with partners that include the Smithsonian Institution, the American Legion, the International Music Products Association, Gibson Musical Instruments, the History Channel, The Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. and school districts nationwide, along with honorary spokesperson first lady Laura Bush and National Presenting Sponsor, Jeep(c).

The automaker used an Aug. 11, 2005 gathering of Jeep owners in the Pocono Mountains to draw attention to the campaign by recreating the American flag using 140 red, blue, white and silver Jeep vehicles.

MENC, the world’s largest arts education organization, may align with corporate sponsors for some activities and work alone other times, but the goal is always the same – to establish the importance of music education. For nearly 100 years, MENC has pushed the agenda, in spite of the fact that during budget crunches, music programs often get cut first.

“When you look at a ball game and the camera pans around, it looks like one of those movies where the words don’t match the mouths moving,” said John Mahlmann, MENC Executive Director, based in Reston, Va. “We saw that as a consequence of young people not having access to music programs in schools.”

The project, launched in 2004, targets children and adults and will culminate in 2007 with several events in Washington celebrating the anthem, Mahlmann said. In January 2006, organizers began touring the country to raise awareness for the initiative by holding competitions in various towns for singers who perform the anthem. Selected winners will receive scholarships for their local school music programs and a chance to participate in one of the finale events in Washington.

The Oak Ridge Boys, who are currently on tour and singing the anthem at professional football and baseball games and other events, use each opportunity to promote the project and encourage audiences to sing along. They got involved out of a personal sense of patriotism, Sterban said. MENC approached The Oak Ridge Boys to join the project and learned the group had been singing the anthem at concerts since the September 11th terrorist attacks. They have recorded the anthem a few times, including it on their album of patriotic songs called Colors, released in 2003. Many ballparks play The Oak Ridge Boys’ rendition when a singer isn’t available.

“We teach our kids a lot of things, but to teach them our national anthem song and what it means to our country, I think is amazing,” said William Lee Golden, baritone singer for the group.

The Oak Ridge Boys sang the anthem at schools including Branson High School in Branson, Mo. There they led a celebration on Sept. 14, joined by schools nationwide, commemorating the day the anthem was written. Nearly all the school’s 1,150 students attended, as did the mayor, school board members, parents and others. The band and choir performed, and students delivered patriotic readings. The Oak Ridge Boys talked about why the anthem is important – and finished with the crowd pleaser, “Elvira.”

“We try to encourage people to sing the national anthem along with us,” Sterban said. “Not to sit and listen, but to sing along with it.”

Key, a Washington attorney, penned the anthem in 1814 after watching the British attack Fort Henry during the War of 1812. By dawn, Key expected to find Baltimore firmly in the British grip, but he was stunned to see a battered American flag flapping in the wind.

Inspired, Key wrote the poem “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Set to a tune by John Stafford Smith, it became the nation’s anthem in 1913.

The scene the anthem describes reminds 17-year-old Nicole McCall, a Branson High School senior, of the famous photograph of the tattered American flag hoisted above the rubble of the World Trade Center after the 2001 attacks. The school event in September reaffirmed for her the anthem’s relevance today in a country still coping with terrorism and, more recently, Hurricane Katrina, said McCall, who introduced The Oak Ridge Boys.

“You think about it when you’re at sports games and athletic events, but you don’t really think about what it means and what our country’s been through,” said McCall, who learned the words in choir. “We’ve been through so much, and this song just really expresses that.”

The Oak Ridge Boys are on tour now, including appearances at the 2006 CMA Music Festival in June and the Puyallup Fair in September.

source: CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association

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