Hi, Folks -

The origin and background of this song is uncertain and muddled, but the point is that it appears to have been a song that demanded to be written. :) According to Wikipedia, it was written in the North and was performed as part of traveling minstrel shows. The exact meaning of the lyrics is unclear but it expresses a longing for a home that's been left. As originally written it may have expressed the longing of a slave for a previous easier life in a different location. But over time the sense of its meaning began to change, and it became a de facto anthem of the South at the time of the Civil War.

Wikipedia says:

Today, "Dixie" is sometimes considered offensive, and its critics link the act of singing it to sympathy for slavery or racial separation in the American South. Its supporters, on the other hand, view it as a legitimate aspect of Southern culture and heritage and the campaigns against it as political correctness. The song was a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln; he had it played at some of his political rallies and at the announcement of General Robert E. Lee's surrender.

And later:

The New York Clipper wrote that it was "one of the most popular compositions ever produced" and that it had "been sung, whistled, and played in every quarter of the globe."[61] Buckley's Serenaders performed the song in London in late 1860, and by the end of the decade, it had found its way into the repertoire of British sailors.[62] As the American Civil War broke out, one New Yorker wrote,

"Dixie" has become an institution, an irrepressible institution in this section of the country ... As a consequence, whenever "Dixie" is produced, the pen drops from the fingers of the plodding clerk, spectacles from the nose and the paper from the hands of the merchant, the needle from the nimble digits of the maid or matron, and all hands go hobbling, bobbling in time with the magical music of "Dixie."[63]

From 2009, here is the Hastings College Choir with the Norman Luboff arrangement of "Dixie".

Thanks to YouTuber HastingsCollege.

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https://youtu.be/LoPRA5SHIHU

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--hobie