The line between the man and the myth is very fine when it comes to Davy Crockett. Though he was born 240 years ago, his life, work and death continue to be subjects of fascination.
This summer, D.C.-based writer Richard Byrne and his collaborator, musician Dean Schlabowske released their musical Congressman Davy. The musical is available now for streaming and purchase online.
“I was obsessed with Davy Crockett as a kid,” says Byrne, who, like many children across the country, became enamored with the image of the rough-and-tumble Crockett made popular by the television show.
In 2014, Byrne watched the entire series again, and as he stayed up all night watching Fess Parker portray Crockett his mind began to wander. “Parker sounded exactly like George W. Bush,” he realized.
“I went back and looked at George W. Bush’s life and he was eight years old when the first Davy Crockett came out and his family had just moved to Texas. I’m sure that he was obsessed and I’m sure that he picked up a little of his political cadence from Fess Parker.”
Byrne decided to shift his interest to Crockett himself. “It did make me wonder what kind of a politician Davy Crockett really was and that’s the seed of where it started.”
As he began his research, he learned more about early Washington, D.C., the major players in its political world and Crockett’s whereabouts while he was in Congress.
“It turned into a whole universe in which Davy Crockett is at the center of it but there’s all these other characters. I also found a lot of stories of the women who lived in what they called Washington City at that time.”
Once Byrne had the play written, he knew exactly who could help him write the music. “I knew that the soundtrack really called for something country and folk but energetic and I’ve known Dean for a long time. Dean’s just got so much song craft in terms of the variety of things he tries and that’s perfect for a musical because you need that variety, it can’t just sound the same for the whole play.”
Byrne and Schlabowske met through the blossoming Americana music scene between Chicago and St. Louis in the ’90s. Schlabowske, a member of the Waco Brothers and also known for his solo project Ramblin’ Deano, knew exactly who to call for this project.
“I’m lucky enough after over 30 years with the Waco Brothers to have a pretty good rolodex,” says Schlabowske, who recruited a group of remarkable musicians for the project. Robbie Fulks portrays Davy Crockett, while Kelly Hogan portrays the larger-than-life Anne Royall, the first female professional journalist and newspaper publisher in the United States.
Other contributors include Nora O’Connor, Job Langford, Bethany Thomas, Jo Walston and Sally Timms. For Byrne, including many women in the story and cast was an important and conscious decision as most historical musicals are centered around male characters.
“I was really determined that I really wanted to find these women who must have been lurking around the story and so many of the people that I knew in musical theater, especially in Washington, D.C. were women who I wanted in my musical so in some cases my intentions dovetailed with that.”
Schlabowske admits he was neither a huge Crockett enthusiast nor a fan of musicals in general, and he was not accustomed to collaborating when writing music. Still, he found a way to genuinely get into the project.
“The cast of singers that I was able to bring together for this represents that history,” he says, referencing the burgeoning Americana scene of the ‘90s. “I really feel like we put together something that to the best extent I could make of it. I definitely wanted the songs to be able to be stand-alone songs and in that way I was influenced by the notion that most of the great American songbook comes from musicals and you don’t need to know the subject of even the musical to appreciate the whole song. I tried to write in that manner.”
Congressman Davy captures the personalities of Crockett and Royall leaving listeners wondering what’s real and what’s for entertainment, just like politics. Byrne and Schlabowske found a way to make these real-life people from so long ago interesting and relatable.
The story of Crockett, the media’s role in building his reputation and tall tales, and his real-life bravado and love of competition still resonates with the way politics works today.
“There’s been a big advance of people collecting his letters and political brochures and you find out that he was a very complicated and mercurial person who was deeply principled. He voted his conscience on a lot of very important things but he did not like to lose so I think that’s a lot of what comes through in the musical, it fills out what we know about Davy Crockett a little bit and he does seem a little more human,” says Byrne.
Congressman Davy leads listeners down Crockett’s path to Washington and his role as the face of the Whig Party, symbolizing the anti-Jacksonian movement of the time, through his eventual electoral defeat and retreat to Texas.
“I really hope people are interested in the story and it causes them to think about what these politicians are really like and what the machinery that gets them elected is like. There are certain things that remain constant over the years and of course I hope people like the tunes and the story itself,” says Schlabowske.
Ultimately Schlabowske and Byrne would love nothing more than to see their work make it to the stage, but realistically, getting all of the artists involved together would be incredibly difficult. For now, listeners can stream Congressman Davy in its full theatrical version or as an album, available on Bandcamp.
“I would say the tunes and the songs for any musical are the engines. They’re the things that push you along and that put different shades on. It lets you make stuff even more complex because you can sweeten something that’s a little sour. You can have harmony come out of something that’s really unharmonious in terms of the politics of it,” says Byrne.
“I’m hoping that people hear it and know that whatever we are doing in 2026, the actual structure of our country and our politics have probably changed a lot less than you think.”
Congressman Davy is available for purchase or streaming now. For more information please visit congressmandavy.bandzoogle.com or Bandcamp
