Ballpark singers mark anthem's bicentennial

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KAREN E. SEGRAVE
4/14/11

Members of the Arkansas Travelers place their hats over their hearts during the singing of the "National Anthem" Thursday evening at their home opener against the Midland Rockhounds.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/KAREN E. SEGRAVE 4/14/11 Members of the Arkansas Travelers place their hats over their hearts during the singing of the "National Anthem" Thursday evening at their home opener against the Midland Rockhounds.

Why do they sing the national anthem before baseball games? So they can throw out the first "pitch."

That's a joke, of course. But the ballpark is probably the place you are most likely to hear somebody singing "The Star-Spangled Banner," the bicentennial of which we've been celebrating this month.

For example, the anthem echoes through North Little Rock's Dickey-Stephens Park, home of the minor league Arkansas Travelers baseball team, about 70 times between April and September each year, says Lance Restum, the Travelers' director of marketing.

He's also on-field master of ceremonies and the guy who not only introduces anthem singers but hires them.

"We schedule auditions in March, and try to work it out during the year to get those people booked.

"The No. 1 qualification is that they're respectful to the original piece and to the process. When you're dealing with the national anthem, that's something that's pretty sacred to this country, and we want to take it seriously."

So, few frills, no uber-classical trills, no elaborate R&B or country-Western curlicues, no full octave higher than the score? "We're open to different styles," he says, "but the more traditional the better."

The performer typically sings it a cappella, Restum says, "but we have had on special occasions groups or bands come out, military-style bands. We appreciate those, because they do a very accurate, tasteful rendition, and they do it a lot."

It's a pretty even mix, he says, between male and female singers; occasionally it's groups, such as barbershop ensemble the Diamond State Chorus.

Restum's fiancee, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Jackson, has sung it twice this season and once last. She says she started singing the anthem at football games at her alma mater, Bryant High School.

She has been singing since she was 3, "as soon as I saw the movie Annie," she says. "My parents have been trying to stop me since." Eventually, it led her into musical theater; she has done shows at Murry's Dinner Playhouse and the Weekend Theater.

Her friend Courtney Speyer, a soprano who has occasionally been singing the anthem at Dickey-Stephens for six years, also does musical theater in the summers (most recently, Rent with the Community Theatre of Little Rock).

"I like it, but it can be kind of intimidating," she says. Part of the challenge is the echo that comes back from the amplified sound. "It can be hard to focus when you hear yourself singing back."

Speyer comes from a military family -- her father is in the Air Force and her niece attends the Air Force Academy -- so the song stirs in her a particular pride. "It's one thing I can do for my country," she says.

...

For what was Francis Scott Key famous? He's the only person in history to know all four verses of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

A lot of people aren't aware that Key's poem, which he set to an English drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven," has four verses. The first one is pretty much the only one we ever hear, and certainly the only one we ever sing.

It's not an easy song to sing; the tune goes all over the map, and depending on the key, it may be too high, or too low, for some people to get a grip on.

"I don't do a whole lot of styling, and I don't know what key I sing it in," Jackson says. "Whatever's comfortable for me. It's easy to get off, though."

Style on 09/30/2014

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