♪ >> c-span, your unfiltered view of government. created by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. >> and now, it's time for booktv on c-span2. every weekend it's 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books. this weekend we're live with author and white house correspondent april ryan. she'll answer your questions about her reporting on the last four presidents. also syndicated columnist cal thomas will offer his thoughts on whether the united states will remain a superpower. and microsoft president brad smith will discuss the ways technology can be both a tool and a weapon. check your program guide or visit booktv.org for more schedule information. and now from the recent rancho mirage writers festival in california, musician tim mcgraw and pulitzer

prize-winning biographer jon meacham look at american history through song. [inaudible conversations] >> please welcome tim mcgraw and jon meacham. [applause] >> hey, guys, how are ya? [applause] hi, how are you? good morning. i'm the old guy up here -- [laughter] >> so history, as you all know, is about words. that's why you're here. the stately rhythms of the declaration of independence, the cadences of the constitution, but it's also about sounds.

it's about the muffled drum at lexington and concord and the sound of the surf at omaha beach, the sound of a minister at the march on washington calling on us to live up to the full mean being of our creed. and it's also about music. and music is one of the most universe aral expressions. you can listen to a song with which you might disagree more congenially than you could ever listen to a speech about something with which you disagree. >> absolutely. you know, as sure as the patriots were carrying their swords and their guns, they were carrying their pens, and they were carrying their prose and poetry along with them to move this revolution forward and to move our country forward. henry david thoreau once wrote when i hear music, i fear no

danger, i'm inabsolutely they'll. -- invulnerable. and that pretty much sums up, i think, what we wanted to write about when we sat down to write this book. >> yeah. thoreau. until about three weeks ago, mcgraw thought thoreau was a running back for lsu. [laughter] so you are here at a inflection point in the life -- >> he's the reason we won the national championship -- >> i was going to say, well done. [laughter] i rooted for clemson to piss mcgraw off, as it turns out. [laughter] we are an unlikely duo. i'm very fit -- [laughter] very well known for my good looks and singing voice. when we started to do this project, i was down in dallas and george w. bush asked me, what you working on? i said i'm doing this project with tim mcgraw, and bush went, mcgraw? i like the wife.

[laughter] so i was misinformed. i thought this was a project with faith hill and then his sorry as, shows up. [laughter] so here we are. this gans, we're neighbors in nashville. ful tim is asked me a really important question, and i had never if thought about it. he asked, given the periods of history i'd written about, had i ever considered the role music played in that history, and i was embarrassed to say i hadn't. and as

>> transcending speech barriers, e. it just has a way of, you know, a way to communicate that you can, that you can't communicate any other way with sometimes. and i think it relates all the way back to the beginning of the spoken word. and stories have been told throughout history through music, originally around fires, i guess, in the beginning. and, you know, for me i want to be able to just move people by the stories that i tell. and that's what i do with music, is tell stories. and part of being involved with you and writing this book was to be able to tell the story of how music helped propel that story forward. >> so every era in american life, the tensions of that era can be found in his music, it's interesting. so 1768 john dickenson wrote the liberty song which was, what, seven years -- eight years

before the declaration of independence. we all know yankee doodle dandy, the star-spangled banner which was a broad nationalist hymn. the songs of the enslaved which are fundamentally religious songs about deliverance. and one of the things we had to deal with was how do we deal with the civil war what was called the irrepressible conflict. and tim grew up in louisiana. when he came to tennessee, he was excited because we have electricity -- [laughter] i know y'all -- >> this is the way it goes for the whole talk -- [laughter] >> it was very exciting. hardback books, he'd never seen that. laugh big moment for him. >> hopefully, there's someone from louisiana here -- >> are there any louisianians? way in the back, close to the bar. [laughter] okay. well done. no problem there.

my roommate in college was jack daniel's, so i'm with ya -- [laughter] we had to deal with dixie. and the south, and if you think about the civil war, you can understand the tensions with dixie and the battle hymn of the republic, right? your thoughts on dixie are pretty interesting. >> well, you know, like jon said, i grew up in the south, in the deep south in louisiana, and i grew up literally in the middle of cotton fields. my first memory is being in a house that used to be a hay barn that was in the middle of a cotton field. i grew up driving cotton pickers and moving irrigation systems in cotton fields. and from an early time, dixie was a part of our culture, a part of what i heard growing up. and still to this day when i hear the song dixie, it still stirs something in my soul even though this my head i realize that it was a song that was written for a different purpose

than what i believed it to be written for. >> written for -- so, again, as you said last night, you don't have to push very hard to find irony in american life. dixie was written for minstrel back face performers in new york city saying about how the formerly enslaved wished they could be back in slaveriment that's what the -- slavery. that's what the song was written for. so one of the ways we had to find to deal with this was how do you tell the tensions of the story. >> absolutely. and when we were doing our book tour, we had a performance -- >> people seeing me sing -- [laughter] >> we had to go through the process of how do you sing this song or deliver this song in a way that doesn't come across to anyone as offensive. and the way we decided to come up with that is a song called the trilogy that was put together by mickey newberry. and it provides dixie, the

battle hymn of the republic, and it combines -- >> all my trials. >> -- all my trials, which is an old bahamian lullaby. and i think they're set to the tone of what we were trying to say and shows the arc of those three songs together show the arc of what it really mean ifs. >> so here's somebody else who came from to tennessee and also found electricity. you may have heard of him. ♪ ♪ >> that's the wrong song. >> that's the wrong song. ♪ [laughter] >> that's why meacham shouldn't have control. >> i've got the clicker. very exciting. >> he may be able to handle a book, but he can't handle anything electronic. >> can you find the trilogy for me?

wave at me. because if i have to sing, jamie's going to throw me out. ♪ ♪ >> no. >> no. >> there's another story for that song. >> yeah, we'll get there. american trilogy. we'll hum until then. [inaudible conversations] >> grab the guitar and bring it out. [cheers and applause] ♪ >> no. >> nope. [laughter] >> keep going. the first one. enter no. that's the last one. [laughter] but i do know that song really well. >> thank god. we'll get there. of. >> it's actually the second song on the list of the tape that you have, i think. sorry, guys.

[laughter] [inaudible] >> we'll keep going. >> yeah. of. -- no, that's not it. ♪ ♪? >> that's not it. >> no hope? we live in hope? okay. so we'll get to that. so american trilogy was really moving, and you all enjoyed it -- [laughter] >> and it was one of the most moving things that we did when we did our -- >> it really was. >> -- book tour as well. >> and so -- [laughter] up one of the things that you find is when you're on the road with mcgraw is there are certain types of fans. mine are all slightly, well, old. [laughter] with a lot of gin blossoms and

horn rims. he has a lot more diverse fan base than i do. so the, we could push into on the tension front. so dixie, battle hymn of the republic, if you look at the depression, you have brother can you spare a dime, which is a very dark song, versus happy days are here again, which is kind of the fdr optimism. god bless america, irving berlin. woody guthrie explicitly wrote this land is your land as an answer to god bless america. so this idea that we, y'all may have noticed we're somewhat divided politically in the life of the country, but we always have been. it's a matter of degree more than kind, we've tended to think. and then you crash into the '60s where really there's both

the new music exploding and the cultural tensions of the world we live in, red versus blue becomes so real. >> absolutely. and we tend to think of the '60s when we talk about protest music or patriotic music in a lot of ways, you tend to automatically go to the '60s, especially when it comes to protest music. some of the first music that the i remember grow canning up, i was born in 1967, and growing up in the early '70s and listening to your parents' music as you're with riding around in the car, the first songs that i remember are songs from that late '60s era that my mom was listening to. and it's the first time as an artist that it struck me that music has more meaning than just with something to enjoy, that there's something -- more to music than that. it's the first time i remember listening and saying these guy really have something to say. they're just not playing a cute little song trying to entertain you, they're trying to say something.

and that really connected with me, and i think that's part of the reason e became an artist, hearing those songs from the '60s. but also when we started this project, it made me realize that the song9 fre 5060s, fortunate son and protest songs like that, draw a direct line to me now all the way back to the liberty song which was written by dickenson in 1768 or whenever it was. what he was trying to say. so protest songs have been there all along, we just know more about it because of the '60s. >> and protests and patriotism, if you think about it, they're two sides of the coin, pick your metaphor. in 1966 ed sullivan comes on the air, he had -- imagine, this is a great show. he had dinah shore, the four tops, the frosty the snowman voice, the comedian, and a guy named barry sadler who was a green beret. this song became number one song

in america in 1966. ♪ ♪ >> no. >> no. [laughter] >> but this is the trilogy. >> the trilogy? >> i think. >> all right. hit rewind. >> [inaudible] >> to okay. >> okay. >> is that green beret? >> the song before this one's green beret. ♪ >> no. [laughter] >> all right. green beret. >> what was so incredible -- ♪ >> sergeant sadler standing there ramrod straight -- >> oh, yeah. >> -- performing this song about green beret and fighting. so patriotic, so moving and everyone sort of gathered around. it was sort of a magnetic post for people of that era. >> and remember john wayne who

made the green berets, right? remember that was a vietnam movie that was really a world war ii movie. it was an attempt to sort of have that moral if clarity about green berets. so, and the tension with that, of course, is our friend merle haggard. >> yeah. okie from muskogee. again, back to louisiana, my step dad drove an 18-wheeler when i was a kid, and i spent a lot of time riding around in the cab of that thing with an eight-track player listening to eight-tracks of merle haggard andly pride, all these -- charlie pride, all these great country singers, george jones. that was my education -- >> you come by it honestly. >> i come by it pretty honestly, yeah. not only riding and hearing these songs, but at jukeboxes at truck stops at four in the

morning and places like that. i grew up with that. it's part of my dna. my first memory -- well, not my first memory, my mom tells me my first introduction to music, i was in a playpen right by the jukebox in a diner. and i would sit in that place every day all day -- >> faith actually wants to keep you in a playpen. [laughter] as that turns out. >> some kind of pen, i don't know if a playpen -- [laughter] >> let's see if we can do -- ♪ [laughter] >> give me okie from muskogee, can you do it? >> green beret, all right. >> that's good, play that. >> play that one. ♪ >> this is the barry sadler -- >> yeah. ed sullivan.

♪ fighting soldiers from the sky, fearless men who jump and die. ♪ men who mean just what they say, the great men of the green berets. ♪ silver wings upon their chest, these are men, america's best. ♪ 100 men will test today but only 3 win the green beret ♪ >> a number of you were singing along. fascinating. and that song, 1966, number one song in america. by 1968 you couldn't have released that, right?

that's how quickly the war changed for folks. >> for sure. >> yeah. so merle haggard was riding along on a bus one day. i'm sure drinking protein shakes -- [laughter] and healthy vaping -- [laughter] i'm sure a lot of hydration, a lot of water. and they pass a sign a, a road sign about muskogee, oklahoma. let's see if we can -- ♪ ♪ >> now we're talking. >> now we're talking. >> yeah. ♪ we don't smoke marijuana in miss if coegy -- muskogee. ♪ we don't -- on lsd. ♪ we don't burn no drag cars

could down on main street. ♪ we like living righting and free. ♪ and we don't make no -- [inaudible] ♪ feel like holding hands -- [inaudible] ♪ we don't let our hair grow long and shaggy. ♪ like the hippies out in san francisco do. [laughter] ♪ and i'm proud to be an okie from muskogee. >> everybody knows that one. ♪ a place where even squares can have a ball. >> i like it. ♪ we still --

[inaudible] down at the court mouths. ♪ and white lightning's still the big thrill of all. ♪ >> now that's my kind of music. >> there you go. >> that's -- [applause] if i have to put a list together of what are my favorite artists who would be at the top of that list as a country artist, it would be merle haggard because of the story for one thing, but his talent, his writing about and the way he spoke to the common man. he had one of the great voices. i think every country singer, including myself -- especially the lineage in the style that i sing, i think can directly mark themselves back to merle haggard who goes call way back to briggman. >> yeah. and merle went back and forth on whether that was a parody or whether it was a red state anthem, and it depended on the protein shakes. [laughter] >> which one sold tickets at which time.

[laughter] >> but, you know, nixon took advantage of this. in fact, when -- there are only two places richard nixon in march of 1974 could safely go. one was the economic club of chicago, and the other was the grand ole opry in nashville. and he shows up, and as you all may know, nixon was terribly clumsy. acuff used to do a thing with the yo-yo, and that was a disaster. brent scowcroft, used to have to -- when he was working for nixon -- when nixon would put a medal on someone, it would often remind him of combat because nixon would slice his hand each and blood -- [laughter] they finally had to put scotch tape on the metal thing. so he shows up, and he's greeted by a song written just for that

occasion to that theme. because at that point, everything's falling apart for him. and he was going to the base. and that was 40 years ago, 45 years ago. so there was very much a concerted effort on the part at that point of the republican party in the same way the democratic party was reaching out to the counter-culture. when you look at the mar on washington -- march on washington, bob dylan was there, peter, paul and mary, really remarkable. you had an answer to this. if you're despairing of where things are, this is a perennial story. and then we crash into the 1980s with president reagan and the whole notion of morning in america. and two different songs that are really two sides of that coin. >> yeah. i mean, you can listen to lee greenwood's god bless the usa, and it can really move you, and you can listen to bruce

springsteen born in the usa, and you can be a big fan of that. and they both have different meanings and come from different places. in fact, reagan wanted to adopt the springsteen song -- >> yeah. >> bruce wouldn't have anything to do with it, because i think he -- they didn't quite understand or get what the song was saying from bruce's point of view. >> now, you and springsteen i often think of in the same -- >> i do too, as a matter of fact. >> yeah. does anyone else? [applause] >> i put myself in springsteen -- [laughter] you know, when we were doing, when we were putting this thing together and we were actually playing songs and we did our two hour shows -- well, they ended up being two and a half hours sometimes with jon talking -- >> i was talking. >> but i was going to do born in the usa, and i told jon -- he wanted me to do born in the usa, and i told jon this story. i told this story throughout the tour that we did. i promised myself that i would

never do a bruce springsteen song ever because i tried it once. there's this thing called grammy cares which is a concert that always honors a big superstar in music, somebody that's been around for a long time and had a big impact on american music. music in general. and one year they were doing springsteen, and he happens to be a friend of mine and he asked if faith and i would do tougher than the rest. we said, sure, we'd be glad to do tougher than the rest. we learned tougher than the rest and we we show up, and there are some of the biggest names in the music business with, sting, neil young, john legend, the list goes on, just the biggest names s and we were proud to be a part of that group. so we sang tougher than the rest, as nervous as we were, and as hard as it is for me to match my wife's vocals, we got through it, it sounded really good, bruce is congratulating me and thanking us for doing it, and he

says, you know, by the way, at at the end of this show, i'm going to get up and sing -- i forget the name of the song now -- >> give me a second. >> anyway -- >> glory days. >> glory days. he said -- >> you can't take him anywhere. he needs me, can't you tell? [laughter] >> and he asked faith and i, all the artists are going to get behind me, we're all going to sing the chorus, and i'm like, surings that would be fantastic to be on stage with sting and bruce, neil young and all those guys? wow, can't wait. so at the end of the night he starts playing and starts doing glory days, and he calls all the artists up. we're all standing behind bruce, i have my cowboy hat on, is right there singing, and he's starting to get to the second verse and he looks back at one of the artists, i'm not going to name -- and he says, hey, to second verse. and he's like, nah, i don't think i want to do that.

looks at a second artist, and at this time i'm starting to get a little embarrassed for my friend that nobody wants to sing the song, and he says, hey, cowboy hat, come sing this song. come sing the second verse. i didn't know the second verse. [laughter] and i didn't want to be the third person to say no to bruce springsteen, so i thought, how hard can it be? [laughter] i know the song, everybody in the music industry's here, why don't i just step up there and act like i know what i'm doing. bad mistake. i step up -- [laughter] the lynn lyrics are on the teleprompter, but i can't find the melody to save my life. so i get two lines into it, and i'm all over the place and bruce just pushes me out of the way and starts singing the song. [laughter] i turn beet red, i'm totally embarrassed, and i go to step in line and my wife pulls one of these on me -- [laughter]

literally moves away from me. [laughter] so that's why i'll never, ever do a springsteen song the rest of my life. muck. [laughter] [applause] ♪ ♪ >> there you go. plus, no one can do it as good as bruce. ♪ ♪ born down in a dead man's town, the first kick i took was when i hit the ground. ♪ born in the usa, i was born in the usa. ♪ born in the usa, born in the

usa. ♪ got in a little -- >> it's easy to get caught up -- it's such a great song. it's easy to get caught up in the notion of that chorus and sort of beat your chest and be very patriotic. but when you listen to the verses, you realize it's coming from a little bit different point of view. >> right. so word reached president reagan in the fall of '84 that this song had come out, and he said this was his favorite bruce springsteen song to which the white house press corps, always respectful, asked what his previous bruce springsteen song was. it took three days and word came back and it was born to run. no one's sure if he actually heard that. [laughter] he was in new jersey, it was a swing state. and it was the core, remember, of what we now used to call reagan democrats. so the fact that a republican was carrying new jersey is a big deal. bruce springsteen came straight

out of that constituency that president reagan was trying to aa firm in 19 is 84. so he -- 1984. so he gives a couple of speeches where he says new jersey's own bruce springsteen and this peat rottic -- patriotic song. .. i don't think it is that striking but apparently it is. so there is another song that merv griffin had discovered. lee greenwood had been a car dealer in vegas into about

198283. he came to national, made a name for himself with this song, plated on merv's show. merv very close to missus reagan sent a videocassette, you can explain to grandchildren later with those are. of greenwood singing this and it became the reagan anthem. has an amazing power today. >> such a great song today, that song still strikes me every time i hear it. because i associated with growing up and just being a country music fan hearing that song and feeling very patriotic and very moving and stirring. and certainly league greenwood is a fantastic singer and writer. so even today when i hear the song it moves me. although sometimes when it's played bothers me. [laughter] ♪ ♪ great song right tomorrow

all things were gone i'd work for all my life ♪ ♪ and i had to start again ♪ with just my children and my wife ♪ ♪ i thank my lucky stars to be living here today ♪ ♪ that the flag still stands for freedom ♪ ♪ and they can't take that away ♪ ♪ i am proud to be an american ♪ ♪ where at least i know i'm free ♪ ♪ and i won't forget the men who died and gave that write to me ♪ ♪ and i will gladly stand up next to you and remember still today ♪ ♪ there ain't no doubt i love this land ♪

♪ god bless the usa ♪ [applause] lee greenwood, what an incredible song to speak to a great country and pay tribute to such a great country. and do it in a popular way with a song like that. it was pretty credible at its time and it still incredible when you hear it, it's such a great piece of music. >> it's linked to the mid- 80s and then to september 11 in many ways. president ragan, i never met president ragan, which is my great regret. but i did get to know missus reagan a little bit. [laughter] i don't need to tell anybody hear about that. i have scars from barbara bush you all have scars from nancy.

[laughter] president ragan's transformative a power was so amazing. jimmy stewart once said of ronnie would have married nancy the first time he would've won an academy award. [laughter] which is probably true. reagan's visual imagination was so important. so he, as you know his great phrase of the shining city on a hill. he's the only guy i know who can improve on jesus. because city on the hill is from sermon on the mount in the new testament. but the edition of the word shining is so important in that. i actually, not making this up, i have heard ministers from pulpit say as jesus said, america shall be as a shining city upon a hill. how that was rendered in the original aramaic, i don't know. i got to know him mrs. reagan a little bit late in her life him i got to do lunch one day. as you all know she got to

know more gossip then you and sometimes it was accurate. as always she knew more about what was going on in washington than i did. i had heard a minister say this a couple weeks before about jesus and the shining city on the hill. so i was at lunch with her and she ordered that third of a cobb salad at the belair and had not eaten it. [laughter] and i said you know man a trip ma'am it's incredible he improved on jeep so jesus. and she said without a blank l yes, that's the kind of thing ronnie did. [laughter] may we all someday be loved as nancy davis loved ronald reagan. what greenwood did, was capture a moment to wear patriotism the ballad of the green berets until about greenwood had fallen into squares bill. that's what okie was about.

and it was really an affirmative cultural statements, that patriotism could be popular again. we can make that case as a speech, you can make that can't case in a campaign, but we went around america, and people, when people say standu people actually stand up. >> it was a pleasure to sing that song especially when john and i do those things together. it's a highlight of the evening to the sinks together when we perform that song to see what it stands for what it means to people. that's it music always has been a part of my life it marks moments along your life. and sometimes you will hear song it will put you right back in a situation sometimes it can be just a mundane situation in everyday situation.

i hear i'm not lisi by jussie cutler and it puts me in seventh grade leg in a hammock with my half-asleep homework on my chest. >> that explains a lot about his accounting. [laughter] >> we talked about the idea music shows up in places of huge parts in pivotal moments in our country and our lives along the way. you know back to the second world worl war for sec, irving berlin, wrote godless america. in the first world war thought it was too sentimental said put in a drawer. he pulls it out in 1940s 1941 and becomes the song it became, by the way do you all know the churchill story about berlin? we quickly, so as i am in

berlin are member the british philosopher was in attaché at the british embassy during the war in washington. and he would write these marvelous reports about the american political situation in the prime minister read them. so he would put out word that means when mr. berlin visited london i went to see him so when mr. berlin comes to london they set up lunch it was the prime minister mr. berlin they are discussing american politics, mr. berlin leaves, one of churchill assistance says how was lunch or churchill said he knows all he writes much better about the politics that he talks. it was irving berlin had mistakenly come to lunch. [laughter] so it's amazing that speaking german, as it turns out. the other great churchill story was has no relevance whatsoever, but you'll like this. churchill was in the men's room of the house of commons when they standing along trough doing what one does. inclement calmness socialist prime minister comes in churchill steps away.

and he looks at i him and says a feeling standoffish today winston? he said no, just every time you see something big you want to nationalize it. [laughter] [applause] c, usually very highbrow, and this -- you just bring out this indy. [so we are in a divided era. music has represented, illuminated, tried to assuage our divisions in the past. what you see the role in this are air for your craft? >> for me, sometimes music is there to just make you feel good. and i think right now we really need that. i also think we need music for people to be able to hear and to get both sides. no matter what side of the isle you fall on, no matter what type of music you like, something that has a way to stir your soul and let you see insight into another point of view. music has a way of doing that. and i think for me, when those

songs come along or that inspiration comes along, i try to do that. sometimes i just try to make a song to make you laugh or make you cry. one of the songs that for me, is one of those transcend ore songs. >> you just accept incendiary and transcendent but that's why i am here. [laughter] >> ec geneva can do the same time. that's one of the great things about writing a book with todd meacham, i have my own history lesson. >> i am about that actor is wikipedia. that was a very george w. bush moment, so he may be president next. [laughter] the all know the story about strategically? pray quickly. i've told you this. you have to be pretty confident in yourself, and george w. bush is, to have a conference at your presidential library on comedy in the presidency. that's a pretty bold thing. so he invites will ferrell and

lorne michaels to come down to the library in dallas. and they're sitting around backstage before they go on and bush says, i made this pretty easy for y'all. they said what you mean mr. president? i gave you strategic read. [laughter] and michaels and farah look at each other and say should we tell them? they said mr. president we made that up. and bush was crushed because he thought he'd said it. but he fought back and said yeah well you didn't make it miss underestimated. [laughter] so i just say? >> what is trying to say in my louisiana language, my native tongue was. >> simultaneous translation from louisiana. >> music has with crossing all boundaries one of the songs and i noticed when i sing, no matter what audience i'm singing to is when i do the song live like you were dying. this is one of those songs

that i feel i'm very privileged and blessed to be the vessel for that song. i don't feel like that's my song, i feel like that's a song made for everyone and everyone finds a way to relate to that. that's what great music does. i am fortunate in my career that i am able to have songs like that as part of my repertoire. as an artist, that is ultimately what you want to do, is move people and bring people together in a way they may not have been brought together without a song like that, without a message like that. >> do you ever think about the difference between a political song and a cultural one? >> i don't. i think about good songs in a song that really moves you. i don't think i would necessarily do a song if it was just meant to be political. i think i would do a song that's meant to move you. and whether it has a political angle to it maybe? but still if it's a well-written song that has

emotion and can connect not just one side of the society but to all society. >> i think that's really important and i admire that. >> which would be more cultural than political i guess. >> one of the things, remember we are the sum of our parts. write christmas one of the uncomfortable realities of the current era, is that politicians are far more often mirrors of who we are rather than molders. if we really wanted something they would give us something different. that's the nature of the enterprise. so if you can create art, if you can create a climate in which name you spend a little more time listening to those better angels versus the worst instincts, we can nudge things forward a little bit. and that's about the best we can do, right? you can get to 51% of the time doing the right thing, that the heckuva did good day. i don't make it very often.

particularly when i am with the mcgraw. [laughter] that's why i keep hoping faith is going to show up but she has not yet. only tell you quick story, one of the last times i saw the senior president bush, was in maine two summers -- three summers ago. a buddy of mine in nashville had just released a song and i played it on my phone for president bush. he listened to it, at that point is very difficult for him to talk. he had parkinson's but was required about it. when he spoke, you listened. we played this and then he said beautiful, beautiful. so here's a song that is about us. ♪ ♪

♪ you know there's a light that goes by the front for door, don't forget the keys under the mat. ♪ ♪ childhood stars shine, always stay humbling kind ♪ ♪ go to church because your mama says to ♪ ♪ visit grandpa every chance that you can ♪ ♪ it won't be a waste of time ♪ ♪ always stay humbling kind ♪ hold the door say please say thank you ♪ ♪ don't steal, don't cheat, don't lie ♪ ♪ i know you got mountains to climb but ♪ ♪ always stay humbling kind

♪ when the dreams your dream and come to you ♪ ♪ when that work you put in is realized ♪ ♪ let yourself feel the pride but ♪ ♪ always stay kumbl humbling kind ♪ ♪ if i can there's a quick story about this wish i could take credit for writing credit for that but my friend wrote that song and she, most thai great song comes about. she sat down in her living room, she has five children. her husband was a plumber. she sat down in her living room because some of her kids had moved away and she had two kids left at home. she was wanting to write a message to her kids about how to treat people when they go out of the house and leave home. so she sitting there and wrote

this note for her children knowing she'll had to left at home and she wanted to read it to them when they walk to the door. she sat down and wrote in 30 minutes. that's the power of music. >> absolutely thank you sir. [applause] >> here's a look at some books being published this week. turning point usa founder argues donald trump has better ideas for america than the old right or the new left and that maca doctrine. and a citizen's guide to beating donald trump, former obama campaign manager offers his strategy to prevent president trump from being reelected. and in john adams under fire, abc chief legal affairs dan abrams looks back to in the future founding father represented british soldiers after the boston massacre in 1770. also being published this week, political activist dan

organizer of the women's march, reflects on her views in we are not here to be bystanders. and all this marvelous potential historian matthew l geo chronicles robert kennedy's visit to appalachia in the winter of 1967 to 68. and how it fueled his interest to run for president. give an example of the life of journalists, activists and catholic worker movement cofounder dorothy day. and in somebody's got to do it, journalists discusses how running for office made her realize the importance of local politicians to their communities. wait for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on book tv, on cspan2. ♪ ♪ sunday book tv features conversations on u.s. presidents and race. plus america as a superpower.

starting at noon eastern on in-depth, a live conversation with author and white house correspondent april ryan. >> i study for this at morgan state university just down the road. study for this, this is my vocation. not knowing that i would be under fire. by asking questions. i have asked questions of each president, the same question except for one. of each president over the last 21 years, but asking questions now has me fearing for my life. >> her latest book is under fire. her other books include at mom's knee, and the presidency in black-and-white. join the conversation with your phone calls, tweets, text, and facebook messages. and at 9:00 p.m. eastern on "after words", in his latest book america's expiration date, syndicated columnist cal thomas explores the rise and fall of nations historically and america's role as a superpower. he is interviewed by author

and cnn contributor, amanda carpenter. >> we are not each other's enemies as lincoln said. if we don't make this great experiment called democracy or constitutional republic, work for succeeding that generations as i argue in my book, we are going to expire. there is no guarantee. things are looking great, but when things are looking great it's time to shore up the foundations. >> watch authors april ryan and cal thomas sunday on book tv on cspan2. >> good evening and welcome to tonight's program hosted by the commonwealth of common valley. my name is allison i am hosted the first dialogues i'm contributor to the bbc. it is my pleasure to introduce our esteemed speakers this evening. doctor aubrey tigre is a chief science officer and cosigned