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What About Auburn? - Original Soundtrack

by Todd Burge

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Light Pulse 01:25
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Ask Them To 04:25
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Drama Pulse 01:04
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about

Original music from the documentary by Richard Anderson Productions
rnaphoto.com/independent-baltimore-filmmaker/

"And then there’s the music, which is as much a part of the storytelling as anything. Props for not falling back on mournful fiddles or blue grass standards and going with (mostly) original compositions, which sent me running for Google. Credit goes to Todd Burge, who was responsible for most of the tracks and whose honest voice and sparse lyrics are like a murder of crows against a raw, steely February sky. Like everything else in the movie, the music is simple and unvarnished; it pushes things forward, never distracts, but really doesn’t suggest a happy ending either."
©Thom McKay May 22, 2019

OVER THE LAST 50-60 YEARS, SMALL TOWNS ALL ACROSS THE NATION HAVE BEEN HOLLOWED OUT.

Their main streets are largely boarded up and bypassed by the bypasses. Once flourishing farm and craft economies have disappeared, replaced by large mechanized farms, globalization of manufacturing, and particularly in places like rural Appalachia, they have been under siege by the extractive industries. These industries may bring economic benefits, but for whom? If they do bring jobs, they are seldom for the people who live in these towns, and they have other impacts.

As more and more people abandon these small towns, what is left behind is often economic decline, addiction and despair. But that is not the whole picture. People still live there and some (like Lesa Moore Kirkley pictured above) return to tend to their memories and the graves of their kin. They are all well worth talking to.

By telling the stories of the folks who grew up in and around Auburn, West Virginia and those who still live there, I’m telling a larger story about what is happening to this country, both in terms of what has been lost, but also about the pockets of resistance and resilience that remain.​


From Todd Burge
I have this old spinet piano in my basement that was given to my mom in the 70s as a gift from my Grandpa, her father under one condition, that she and “the boys” (my big brother Max and I) all take piano lessons.

I was probably 9 and Max 11. Off we went for weekly lessons from Virginia Lott, who we already knew well, as she was the pianist at Sand Hill United Methodist in Boaz, WV. My Grandpa Eston Kimble, helped build that church and we attended there on Sundays and Wednesdays when I was a young boy.

Piano certainly isn’t my main instrument of choice when I’m writing songs, but I was sitting at that old piano one afternoon while thinking about some of the images and videos Richard Anderson had forwarded me and I heard a melody in my head. Songs often will start this way. Some come easily, others are a chore. This one was easy. Natural. This melody became “Main Street Auburn”, the theme of the documentary. Other piano melodies followed and are included in the film. That old piano that sits in my basement sounds like those pianos you hear in old churches in the hills and hollers of WV. It sounds like my childhood. I had the piano tuned up and used it for recording the soundtrack. There’s something beautiful to me about using it for this film. It makes me feel that my circle is unbroken.

As I watch the documentary, I see my bloodline. I see my grandparents and hear their voices, their concerns, their struggles and laughter. I should say that my mother did a little bit of voice over at the beginning of the film. It sounds just right in there.

I also took a couple songs that I have that were written and recorded in recent years and used them in scenes where they seemed to fit. On stage I often half-jokingly say that all my songs are WV songs, but, actually, most of them are. They were made right here in WV. My song entitled Ask Them To seemed to fit perfectly during the ice cream social sequence. “There’s one thing the lonely can’t see. Love is here, it never ever leaves. A dormant state can be released. If you congregate, that gate will open, it’s true.”

I also selected songs (not included here, you'll have to watch the documentary) from other West Virginia artists like WV Music Hall of Famer Tim O’Brien, The Nichols Family, The Carpenter Ants, Rachel Eddy and Mike Morningstar of course has music in the film and is interviewed as well.

Todd Burge
May 8th 2019

credits

released May 8, 2019

Todd Burge - Piano, guitar, ukulele, harmonica, voice and Garage Band

The Cheerleader and Ask Them To produced by Tim O'Brien
I Believe This, I Believe recorded by Richard Anderson

All Songs By Todd Burge
(C)2020 Bunj Jam Music BMI

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Todd Burge Parkersburg

If it’s been discovered by man, West Virginia’s Todd Burge has written about it. A born ponderer and observer of life, each of his songs tells a story. Whether drawn from personal experience or a tale of poetically woven fiction, you’ll live every second of it through his songs. ... more

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