August Brown Bag Lunch – Abraham Lincoln in Song
“Abraham Lincoln in Song” is a one man show created by award-winning folksinger and
folklorist, Chris Vallillo to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and connects to the 250th Anniversary of the United States. Extensively researched and historically accurate, the program uses period music to look at our 16th President from a whole new angle.
The life of Abraham Lincoln spanned a period of change, growth and struggle in our young
nation, and the music of his era movingly characterizes these remarkable times. Vallillo uses
Lincoln’s own words and stories, contemporary folk music, and period songs to shed light on one
of history’s most beloved figures — not only as a remarkable leader, but as a man — who knew
and loved many of these very songs himself.
The show covers Lincoln’s life from his birth on the Big South Fork of Nolan’s Creek in
Kentucky in 1809 through his death in 1865 at the hand of John Wilkes Booth.
Vallillo himself is a performer with an affinity for American roots music and a gift for translating
historic topics into modern day understanding. A former archaeologist turned folksinger/
songwriter, he is a skilled multi-instrumentalist whose love of the past evolved into a love for
historic music. He is the Illinois State Scholar for the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit
on Roots Music New Harmonies.
Abraham Lincoln in Song has been performed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum,
the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historic Site, the Gettysburg Battlefield National Museum,
President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington DC and theaters and historic sites around the country
to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.
The show is part of the Brown Bag Lunch series hosted in collaboration with the Ellwood House Museum. It will be held the DeKalb County History Center in their new corn crib stage – bring a chair or blanket to enjoy! This event is made possible in part by the Illinois Arts Council and Farny Wurlitzer Foundation.