In the late 70s I was driving north from Baltimore to New Jersey listening to a decades long folk music show from Philadelphia, Folklore, emceed by Gene Shay. He played a song sung by Priscilla Herdman, who had an utterly gorgeous , angelic voice, called, And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. This was not the classic Australian Waltzing Matilda but an anti war song about an Australian at the World War I battle of Gallipoli who is gravely wounded and about the wasted lives at the battle. The words start with the glory of going to battle and end with the total horror of war. And the contrast of Priscilla's gentle, angelic voice and the horror of the story make the story even more poignant.
This was before the internet and Priscilla was not big box office. It took me years to finally find the album in Baltimore when I was again visiting my friend.
I went to work for the old Ma Bell AT&T and for 5 years my constant habit was to buy the New York Times on my way to work, get to work early, page through the Times and try to do the daily cross word puzzle. Finally one Friday I stopped to pick up the times and it wasn't there. I was pissed and started to walk out of the store but turned around and for the very first time bought a New Jersey paper. I paged through it and at the bottom of the page saw a few paragraphs saying Priscilla Herdman was singing that evening at The Princeton Fold Song Society. Needless to say I went.
Priscilla is retired now. She never wrote her own songs she jus made carefully chosen songs more beautiful with her straight forward approach to singing and with her beautiful voice. I do have every album she ever made. And her version that first song I heard on the car radio is among my most special musical moments.
