“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” has a layered history. Its melody grew out of the American camp-meeting and revival tradition of the mid-nineteenth century and is generally associated with William Steffe, who set it down around 1856. During the Civil War, Union soldiers fitted it with the words of “John Brown’s Body,” and in late 1861 the poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the now-familiar verses, published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862.
As an instrumental, the piece carries the steady, march-like cadence of its anthem origins. It is a thoroughly familiar part of the American songbook, and it has long been adapted by string bands and bluegrass players, who treat its broad melody as a vehicle for instrumental arrangement.
This recording offers an instrumental reading of the hymn on the album “Laid Back,” an unhurried take on a song more often heard sung.
