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Soldiers of Song
- The Dumbells and Other Canadian Concert Parties of the First World War
- Narrated by: Jason Wilson
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
The seeds of irreverent humour that inspired the likes of Wayne and Shuster and Monty Python were sown in the trenches of the First World War, and The Dumbells - concert parties made up of fighting soldiers - were central to this process. Soldiers of Song tells their story.
Lucky soldiers who could sing a song, perform a skit or pass as a “lady” were taken from the line and put onstage for the benefit of their soldier-audiences. The intent was to bolster morale and thereby help soldiers survive the war.
The Dumbells’ popularity was not limited to troop shows along the trenches. The group also managed a run in London’s West End and became the first ever Canadian production to score a hit on Broadway. Touring Canada for some 12 years after the war, the Dumbells became a household name and made more than 25 audio recordings. If nationhood was won on the crest of Vimy Ridge, it was the Dumbells who provided the country with its earliest soundtrack. Pioneers of sketch comedy, the Dumbells are as important to the history of Canadian theatre as they are to the cultural history of early 20th-century Canada.
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Critic reviews
“The Great War is remembered as a terrible and senseless conflict where a generation was put through the sausage-grinder of stalemate and slaughter. Nine million were killed, including more than sixty thousand Canadians. The civilian soldiers who formed the ranks of all armies suffered under terrible strain, but they found coping mechanisms in the midst of destruction. Laughter, humour, pranks, and songs helped them to endure. Meanwhile, behind the lines, concert and theatre groups offered humourous skits and performances to bolster morale. In Soldiers of Song Jason Wilson has produced a groundbreaking study of these concert parties, with a focus on the most successful of them, the Dumbells. Wilson, a scholar and two-time Juno Award nominee, has researched deeply to unearth and reconstruct the popular songs, irreverent jokes, and cutting barbs directed against the war effort, generals, and the enemy. His work reminds us that the more than 450,000 civilian soldiers who served overseas came from all professions, including actors, comics, and musicians, and that they too contributed to winning the war." (Tim Cook, Canada's History)
“Jason Wilson, an accomplished musician who has authored three previous books on Canadian history and culture, has written an outstanding book on the musical entertainment for Canadian soldiers during the First World War. Soldiers of Song discusses the Canadian ‘concert parties’ that performed during and after the war, with a focus primarily on the most well-known show, the Dumbells.... I was impressed by the author’s ability to balance an historical approach with cultural analysis. This is in contrast to earlier works on concert parties, which are more descriptive. The author’s extensive use of primary materials also makes the book a useful historical source on early-twentieth-century Canadian popular music.... Soldiers of Song is a valuable and insightful survey of wartime entertainment that also sheds light on Canadian music theatre of the early twentieth century. Reproductions of photographs of performers and performances are interspersed throughout, and there is an extensive list of sources and acknowledgements. Completing the presentation are nine appendices detailing the personalities, performances, and publication histories of the most prominent Canadian concert parties.” (Sean Luyk, University of Alberta, CAML Review)
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A Worse Place than Hell
- How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
- By: John Matteson
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
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December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln's government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to profound repercussions in the country's law, literature, politics, and popular mythology. Taken together, their stories offer a striking restatement of what it means to be American.
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Fantastic Intertwining!
- By Peter H. Christensen on 09-02-21
By: John Matteson
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Invisible Heroes of World War II
- Extraordinary Wartime Stories of Ordinary People
- By: Jerry Borrowman
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Invisible Heroes of World War II documents 10 fascinating true stories of a diverse group of soldiers and noncombatants from all over the world, including African Americans, women, and Native Americans, who fought with the Allies during World War II. These heroes made significant contributions in the war effort, and sometimes gave their lives for freedom and liberty, often without much recognition or fanfare. All served with valor and distinction as part of the massive Allied forces who fought to free the world from tyranny and oppression.
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EXCELLENT AND INSPIRING!
- By B. ADAMS on 12-22-20
By: Jerry Borrowman
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Tolkien and the Great War
- The Threshold of Middle-earth
- By: John Garth
- Narrated by: John Garth
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life.
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Excellent Text Frustratingly Recorded
- By Timothy Ortopan on 05-09-18
By: John Garth
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Our Mothers' War
- American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II
- By: Emily Yellin
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Our Mothers' War is an eye-opening and moving portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of women's experiences during this pivotal era been brought together in one book.
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Amazing
- By Sam I on 02-04-22
By: Emily Yellin
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Saving My Enemy
- How Two WWII Soldiers Fought Against Each Other and Later Forged a Friendship that Saved Their Lives
- By: Bob Welch
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Saving My Enemy is the touching true story of two soldiers on opposite sides of WWII whose unlikely friendship, forged in their 80s, dissolves six decades of guilt and shame that had pushed both men to despair.
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Our story!
- By Marianne McNally on 04-27-21
By: Bob Welch
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The Price of Valor
- The Life of Audie Murphy, America's Most Decorated Hero of World War II
- By: David Smith
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
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When he was 17 years old, Audie Murphy falsified his birth records so that he could enlist in the army and help defeat the Nazis. When he was 19, he single-handedly turned back the German army at the Battle of Colmar Pocket by climbing on top of a tank with a machine gun, a moment immortalized in the classic film To Hell and Back, starring Audie himself.
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Horrible, Simplistic
- By Kathy Perow on 10-02-16
By: David Smith
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The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
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Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
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The York Patrol
- The Real Story of Alvin York and the Unsung Heroes Who Made Him World War I's Most Famous Soldier
- By: James Carl Nelson
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the vein of Band of Brothers and American Sniper, a riveting history of Alvin York, the World War I legend who killed two dozen Germans and captured more than 100, detailing York's heroics yet also restoring the unsung heroes of his patrol to their rightful place in history - from renowned World War I historian James Carl Nelson.
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So many regiments & divisions
- By Pat Newell on 01-26-23
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Mobituaries
- By: Mo Rocca
- Narrated by: Mo Rocca
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries - reading about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world. But not every notable life has gotten the send-off it deserves. His quest to right that wrong inspired Mobituaries, his number one hit podcast. Now with Mobituaries, the audiobook, he has gone much further, with all new essays on artists, entertainers, sports stars, political pioneers, founding fathers, and more. Even if you know the names, you’ve never understood why they matter...until now.
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Very good, but.....
- By Christopher on 11-15-19
By: Mo Rocca
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Biggest Brother
- The Life of Major Dick Winters, the Man Who Led the Band of Brothers
- By: Larry Alexander
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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They were Easy Company, 101st Army Airborne - the World War II fighting unit legendary for their bravery against nearly insurmountable odds and their loyalty to one another in the face of death. Every soldier in this band of brothers looked to one man for leadership, devotion to duty, and the embodiment of courage: Major Dick Winters. This is the riveting story of an ordinary man who became an extraordinary hero.
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Excellent!
- By Vera Family on 09-24-21
By: Larry Alexander
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Elton John
- The Biography
- By: David Buckley
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Elton John is as much loved for his outrageous personality and witty outspokenness as for his music. Such shamelessness and sheer silliness rivals anything uttered by punk rockers, yet it is so typically Elton: honest and intemperate. Tragedy and heartbreak have played a large part in his life. Behind the parties, the hedonism, the lavish stage costumes, and silly glasses lies a more somber story. Between disputes with managers, legal wranglings, public breakups, and divorce, John has been faced with serious health problems and drug addictions.
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Trite!
- By michael mckone on 08-04-22
By: David Buckley
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Shakespeare in a Divided America
- What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes—presidents and activists, soldiers and writers, conservatives and liberals alike—have turned to Shakespeare’s works to explore the nation’s fault lines. In a narrative arching from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned.
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An Entertaining History Lesson
- By David on 08-17-20
By: James Shapiro
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Congo Mercenary
- By: Mike Hoare
- Narrated by: Mike Hoare
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Col. Mike Hoare tells how his force of mercenaries, 5 Commando, put down a Comunist-backed rebel uprising in the Congo. As they restored law and order, town by town, he and his men freed 1800 nuns and priests. His men also learned what it means to be real soldiers.
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Nice to hear an unapologetic account
- By S. H. Moore on 01-16-20
By: Mike Hoare