Edwards and Amazing Grace in SC [View All]

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Fri, Jan. 25, 2008

Edwards aims for rural tone
S.C. native touts Southern roots, sings with bluegrass legend



GAFFNEY, S.C. -- The campaign speeches this week end with a poignant moment: Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards joins hands with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley to lead the crowds in singing "Amazing Grace."

The traditional mountain music of Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys now has more prominence than "The Rising" by New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen, the unofficial campaign anthem at Edwards' rallies in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The tone of the campaign has also changed as Edwards has returned to his native South for Saturday's S.C. Democratic primary.

Edwards' basic message of the need for "economic fairness" is still the same. But some of the edge has been rounded off.

In front of more politically moderate S.C. Democrats, Edwards no longer uses phrases such as "corporate greed" or talks about corporations stealing children's futures.

Instead, Edwards emphasizes his Southern roots, his understanding of small towns where textile mills have closed and of the decline of rural America. And he promises never to forget these people if he gets to the White House . . .

article: http://www.charlotte.com/politics/story/461927.html




On November 10, 2007, Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at a rally for presidential candidate John Edwards in Des Moines, Iowa, just prior to the Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. Between renditions of "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "The Orange Blossom Special," Stanley told the crowd that he had cast his first vote for Harry S. Truman in 1948 and would cast his next for John Edwards in 2008. --Wiki


related: Eggs, bacon and side of Edwards
http://www.charlotte.com/286/story/461928.html