ROME — Amanda Straney and Bill Fahy will perform their “Soldier’s Joy” music program at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, at Rome Historical Society, 200 Church St., Rome. This program will showcase music from the Civil War era and what life was like during that time.

Straney and Fahy are members of Craobh Dugan, the Mohawk Valley branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, working to preserve Irish culture in the Utica/Rome area of upstate New York. Straney takes up her fiddle and Fahy his banjo to play tunes of the Civil War era which will transport you back in time 16 decades.

Between tunes and songs, the duo will tell stories about music during the Civil War, including quotes from letters written by the people who lived through that time. Some found humor in their circumstances, others wrote heart-wrenching pleas, and many mentioned music and its profound effects in their letters. We hear their own voices over the many years from the letters they wrote to the editors of newspapers in Rome and Utica, and personal notes they sent to friends, sweethearts, and relatives. 

For more information, call 315-336-5870, or go to www.romehistoricalsociety.org.