
Richard
Byrne



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A new musical about Davy Crockett's political rise & fall by Richard Byrne and Dean Schlabowske!
Available now at Bandcamp (CD & Digital)
Find out where it's streaming.
Frontier legend Davy Crockett was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The Whig Party courted him for a White House run. How did it all go wrong?
Along the way you'll meet Anne Royall -- first woman in America to edit and publish her own newspaper -- and a variety of characters in America's capital city: hotel proprietors and boarding house keepers, wheeler-dealer politicians, a singing bear, and a young editor named Edgar Allan Poe.
The story behind Congressman Davy is a classic example of truth being every bit as compelling as fiction.
Legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett was a U.S. Representative from Tennessee for three terms. His final term in office was at the zenith of Democratic President Andrew Jackson’s tumultuous presidency.
The rival Whig Party saw Crockett as a new Jackson that they could use to win the presidency in 1836 . They even sponsored his speaking tour of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states in 1834.
But Crockett lost his seat in Congress before he could run for president. Whig ardor cooled. After his defeat, Crockett told an audience: “In my last canvass, I told the people of my District, that, if they saw fit to re-elect me, I would serve them as faithful as I had done; but, if not, they might go to hell and I would go to Texas. I was beaten, gentlemen, and here I am.”
We all know how that journey ended up.
Congressman Davy features 23 alt-country/hard folk songs written by Byrne and Schlabowske, and it explores the enduring verities of American politics and the pervasive power of celebrity in our elections.
Congressman Davy / Development History
Congressman Davy - Staged Reading
Lankford Auditorium - True Reformer Building / Washington DC
November 1, 2024
Directed by Catherine Aselford
Band Leader: Jason Wilson
Cast included: Gillian Shelly, Rose McConnell, Janine Sunday, Taunya Ferguson, Duane Richards, Olivia Luzquinos, Pat Gover, Cate Brewer

Developmental Workshop
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop / Washington DC
February 24, 2024
Band Leader: Ira Gitlin

