The United States has been in the midst of a foreign military engagement nearly every year since composer Joel Harrison's birth in 1957. This endless state of war has had lasting impacts on the country’s wellbeing, and far reaching repercussions on generations of soldiers and their families. Guitarist and composer Joel Harrison’s new large ensemble recording, America At War, is a musical meditation on a lifetime of ruinous armed conflicts conducted by the United States. After composing and recording his first large ensemble works (Infinite Possibility, 2011, Sunnyside), he looked for a strong theme upon which to build his new work. It was 2014 and the United States was still immersed in an unending 13-year conflict in Afghanistan and the “War on Terror,” as well as the longstanding Iraq military conflict. He was aghast at the waste of it all and the effects on those in battle, along with the effects on those expected to finance them
