I'm not exactly sure why this came to mind. In part because it's written by the same team that wrote the musical Purlie, which I've written about a few times -- Gary Geld and Peter Udell, And in part it's because I was listening to a Paul Robeson album today, and his recording of the song "Shenandoah." And so I tracked down my recording of this musical -- Shenandoah, which is based on the Jimmy Stewart movie of the same name, about a pacifist father who refuses to let his son fight during the Civil War, but then events are taken out of his hands.
What's odd about the show being so little-known is that it was a huge hit. It opened in 1974 and ran for 1,050 performances, that's 2-1/2 years, which is even longer than its better-known predecessor, Purlie. The show starred John Cullum, who may be best-known to TV viewers for his role as Hollingons Van Coeur in Northern Exposure. He won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a musical for Shenandoah.
I should really post one of his songs from the show, but instead this is one that's always struck my fancy. It's a very simple song on the surface, just a lively kid's song basically, but I find it extremely touching as the song goes on, in part because its terrific use of harmony, which I love. The song is "What Am I Me?", sung by two little kids who are good friends -- one white, the other black, sung here by Joseph Shapiro and Chip Ford.