Endowed with a wonderful power
Blind Tom continues his tour of the CSA.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 10, 1862:
Blind Tom.
–Mr. Oliver announces three more concerts at the African Church, closing, on Wednesday night, so that those who have not yet heard the performances of the youthful pianist, blind Tom, will do well to avail themselves of the present opportunity. There has not, within our recollection, been such a “mania” among the people for hearing a musical celebrity, (Jenny Lind not excepted,) as there is to listen to the unaccountable outpouring of harmony created by this extraordinary child. Nature was in a singular mood when she deprived him of her usual gifts, but endowed him with a power so wonderful that even the acutest intellect is puzzled in seeking an explanation. Tom will visit Fredericksburg after closing his present series of concerts here.
The Dispatch editors talk about a mania over the performances of Blind Tom Wiggins. P.T. Barnum persuaded Jenny Lind to begin an American tour in 1850 with “with a supporting baritone, Giovanni Belletti, and her London colleague Julius Benedict as pianist” – “The enthusiasm of the public was so strong that the American press coined the term “Lind mania”.” Beatlemania would grip the United States about 100 years later.
'Fab Three' in America
Swedish (Nightingale) invasion
