The Historic St. Mary’s City Commission Maryland Day celebration set for this past Saturday was canceled due to the rainy weather. However, today you can hit the St. Clements Museum and boat out to the Island where it all started back in 1634.
As for our State Song, or more correctly our lack of a State Song, Maryland and New Jersey are the only 2 States currently without an official State Song. (For back story on Jersey and how Born to Run almost became their State Song (click here.)
In 2021 Maryland scrapped the “O Tannenbaum” rip off “Maryland My Maryland” due to lyrics about it being a pro-Confederate tune written during the Civil War (click here.) (Tannenbaum was written originally as a German folk song about a fir tree.) Since 2021, there has been a lot talk about Maryland adopting a new tune, but little to nothing has been done to formally do so.
In Annapolis, the matter is being kicked around via a proposed bill to appoint a Task Force to come up with a new tune. However, the bill is having trouble getting sponsors and it looks like it is gonna be some time before we ever do get a new tune.
Like a Cesarean baby though, I am always looking for the easy way out, so how about this solution: keep “Tannenbaum” as our State Song and just go back to the original lyrics even if they got nothing to do with Maryland per se. Think about it – Christmas music all year round! Here are the original lyrics:
However, if we absolutely have to have something new for our State Song, as I have stated previously, here are a couple of Maryland tunes I like. Vonda’s would be my first choice:
This from Jimmy Charles would be a close second:
Some historic trivia for you – the same day that Gov. Hogan signed a bill outlawing “Maryland My Maryland” as the State Song, he signed another bill legalizing sports betting in Maryland (click here.) I know that there is a joke to be made in there somewhere. Maybe after my second cup of coffee it will come to me.