Letters to Baltimore from WWII

When I called Michael Beresh, he was sitting at the kitchen table working out harmonies with his wife. It seemed appropriate, because family plays such a large part in Beresh’s latest musical project, which he’ll unveil tomorrow night at the Creative Alliance. Letters to Baltimore from War was gleaned largely from his great-uncles’ WWII-era correspondence.

Henry and Walter Beresh were printers by trade, working at Bethlehem Steel and living in Highlandtown. Michael says Henry was a married man, more settled than Walter, who was known to hit the corner bars and shoot craps in the alley. They both shipped out during the War and wrote home regularly. “Their letters were amazing,” says Michael Beresh, who came across them last fall. “It was the stories that really grabbed me. They were in the Battle of the Bulge and writing about missing the Preakness. Walter even wrote poetry from a foxhole in Italy. And it’s good stuff, too.”

It was so good that Beresh was inspired to write 30 songs, using the letters for lyrics, in just two weeks. Looking back on it, he downplays that whirlwind of activity: “It’s not so hard,” he says, “when the lyrics have basically been written for you.”

He whittled the material down to 15 songs, which chronologically document the brothers’ war experiences. Walter practically served for the duration of the war, from 1941 to 1945. “His letters are hopeful and gung-ho, at first,” says Michael. “At the end, they’re much different, and he’s writing, `I just want to get out of here so bad.’”

Neither brother made it back to Highlandtown, but their stories did.

Saturday night, Beresh and his band—which includes guitar, upright bass, pedal steel, and a trio of back-up singers—will bring them to life at the Patterson, a fitting venue for the show. “It’s the old neighborhood,” says Beresh. “In the letters, they were longing for Highlandtown.”

The show, which also features a jazz quartet playing songs from the 1940s and a Q&A with Beresh, starts at 8 pm. Tickets are $15.

[illustration by Andy Friedman]