White Mansions

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White Mansions
Studio album by Various artists
Released	June 1978
Genre	Country Outlaw country
Label	A&M
Producer(s)	Glyn Johns
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Waylon Jennings chronology
Waylon & Willie (1978)	White Mansions (1978)	I've Always Been Crazy (1978)

White Mansions is a 1978 album by various artists documenting life in the Confederacy during the Civil War. The songs on the album were written by Paul Kennerley and are performed by Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, John Dillon and Steve Cash. Each singer took on a separate and distinct persona, portraying different characters in an attempt to show the Confederacy and the concept of "Southern pride" through said characters' eyes; in essence, therefore, White Mansions is a concept album. Eric Clapton played the guitar on several tracks. The record was a rather unsuccessful endeavor and went by relatively unnoticed, never charting.

[edit] Characters

The four main characters portrayed in the album are:

• Matthew J. Fuller (played by John Dillon) – The twenty-three-year-old son of a Southern cotton planter, he received a full education in college and military academy. When the Civil War begins, he joins the Confederate Army infantry regiment as a captain.
• Polly Ann Stafford (played by Jessi Colter) – Matthew's significant other; at the start of the war, she begins working in a hospital, tending to wounded and dying soldiers.
• Caleb Stone (played by Steve Cash) – Representing the stereotype of "white trash", Caleb is a man who possesses neither a permanent job nor his own property or land, opting instead for accepting random jobs requiring little skill. He detests the powerful plantation owners of the South and fights against the Union to "preserve his superiority over the blacks".
• The Drifter (played by Waylon Jennings) – The Drifter is the album's narrator. His real name is not known, but the listener is told that was wounded fighting for Texas in the Mexican War; during the Civil War, he doesn't participate in the fighting, traveling from town to town and commenting on the events that unfold instead.

In addition, a single track is performed by a group credited as "The Slaves"; this, as is explained in the liner notes, is symbolic, in that, "despite the fact that they represented over a third of the population of the South, their voice was seldom heard".

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Paul Kennerley.

1. "Story to Tell (The Preface)" – 2:52
   • Performed by Polly
2. "Dixie, Hold On" – 3:14
   • Performed by The Drifter
3. "Join Around the Flag" – 2:16
   • Performed by Matthew
4. "White Trash" – 3:55
   • Performed by Caleb
5. "Last Dance & The Kentucky Racehorse" – 5:26
   • Performed by Matthew and Polly
6. "Southern Boys" – 2:58
   • Performed by Caleb
7. "Union Mare and the Confederate Grey" – 3:53
   • Performed by The Drifter
8. "No One Would Believe a Summer Could Be So Cold" – 2:59
   • Performed by Matthew
9. "The Southland's Bleeding" – 4:12
   • Performed by The Drifter
10. "Bring up the Twelve Pounders" – 0:26
    • Performed by Matthew
11. "They Laid Waste to Our Land" – 2:33
    • Performed by Caleb, Matthew and The Drifter
12. "Praise the Lord" – 1:09
    • Performed by The Slaves
13. "The King Has Called Me Home" – 3:13
    • Performed by Caleb
14. "Bad Man" – 3:04
    • Performed by Matthew
15. "Dixie, Now You're Done" – 3:13
    • Performed by The Drifter