With Abraham Lincoln in Song, Vallillo takes the audience on a musical journey, making history come alive with his excellent blending of music and storytelling.

-Phil Funkenbusch, Director of Theaters, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

The life of Abraham Lincoln spanned a period of change, growth and struggle in our young nation, and the music of his era movingly characterizes these remarkable times. From his days as a flat-boater, through his time at New Salem, his years as a circuit lawyer and on up through his presidency, Lincoln’s life is a microcosm of the development of Illinois during that period.

​

Abraham Lincoln in Song helps shed light on one of history’s most beloved figures “not only as a remarkable leader, but as a man,” who knew and loved many of these very songs himself. Special emphasis is placed on showing Lincoln ‘s unique bond with the common man and his desire for reconciliation, not revenge. It is an extensively researched, historically accurate program Chris uses period music Lincoln may well have known and sung, and Lincoln ‘s own stories to illustrate his life and put it into context.

​

The show is designed to be an interactive, accessible, program that educates as well as entertains. It covers Lincoln ‘s life from his birth on the big south fork of Nolan’s Creek in Kentucky in 1809 through his death in 1865. It has been performed in association with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, The Lincoln Home National Historic site, Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum and various touring exhibits including Forever Free from the Huntington Library and “Lincoln, the Constitution and the Civil War” from the Library of Congress and the American Library Association.  Abraham Lincoln in Song has recently been endorsed by the Illinois Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The show works well for both school audiences (grade 3 and up) and adult audiences.

Chris Vallillo is a singer/songwriter and roots musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song. Having spent the last 30 years in the rural Midwest, he has a natural affinity for American roots music. Performing on six-string and bottleneck slide guitars, Vallillo weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of the history and lifestyles of the Midwest. Dirty Linen magazine described the music as, “vivid, original story songs” delivered with an “eye for detail and a sense of history” while Folk Wax Magazine Editor, Arthur Wood said “Vallillo’s guitar playing flows like warm honey and is a true aural delight.” Vallillo’s music has a timeless quality about it. You can hear the strains of the Carter Family and Jimmy Rogers reflected in his writing. Its roots based original and contemporary folk with the rich acoustic textures of bottleneck slide, finger style and flat picked guitars that echo the influences of Mississippi John Hurt, Norman Blake, Doc Watson and Ry Cooder. Always a project-oriented artist, in the early 2000’s Vallillo began creating one man shows using music as the vehicle to explore a subject or theme. His 2008 project, titled Abraham Lincoln in Song, received the endorsement of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the CD reached #10 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album Chart. In 2016, his recording, Oh Freedom! Songs of the Civil Rights Movement charted at #6 on the folk charts and the show was staged with a band and full choir at Western IL University. That show was videoed and syndicated on Illinois Public Television. In 2021 Chris returned to his songwriter roots with a new recording, Forgottonia featuring original songs and instrumentals written about rural Illinois.