Parentheses: Abilene (The Eisenhower Waltz)

Peter Mulvey: Abilene (The Eisenhower Waltz)

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Abilene (The Eisenhower Waltz) doesn’t sound like a political song. It was recorded in 2005, when the Iraq war was much more in the news and the public’s awareness than it is now. Peter Mulvey evokes a period 50 years prior to that, even taking the phrase “Iron cross” from an Eisenhower speech in 1953. He presents Eisenhower as a man who had gotten the country into a tight spot, and took responsibility for it. Mulvey says not a word about the events of 2005 in the song. And his silence says it all.