Welcome to the Ether Game Weekly Podcast! Election 2016 is taking place this week, so Ether Game has a special political edition of the podcast for all of you policy wonks out there! See if you can guess this presidential tune on our podcast. We won't be having a show on Tuesday night, November 8th, because WFIU will be airing local and national Election Coverage from NPR and the WFIU Newsroom. You won't want to miss out!

(If you're still looking for more political Ether Game, check out our "American Presidents" edition of the podcast back in February.)

Aaron Copland (1900–1990): OLD AMERICAN SONGS, FIRST SET: The Dodger.

Thomas Hampson, baritone; The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff, conductor. Long Time Ago: American Songs By Aaron Copland (Teldec)

In Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs" from 1950, the composer pays musical tribute to his home country, digging into the vast repertoire of traditional American folk tunes. "The Dodger" is a song with English origins, which seems to have become popular especially around the Ozarks in the 19th century. In 1936, John Lomax from the Library of Congress recorded an Arkansas resident name Emma Dusenbury performing this song, and it was later published by folklorist Charles Seeger. The anti-political message behind the song apparently upset a Democratic Senator, since government money was funding Seeger's folk song archive project. Seeger told the Senator that "The Dodger" was used in the mudslinging presidential campaign of 1884 between Democrat GROVER CLEVELAND and Republican James Blaine. Blaine "dodged" military service in the Civil War, and Cleveland narrowly won the election. Since Cleveland was a fellow democrat, that senator ended his protest against the song.