Written as the finale of Cory Band's programme at Brass in Concert 2008, An American Tale is a musical tribute to the American Civil War. The work includes The Battle Hymn of the Republic, The Girl I Left Behind, Kingdom Come, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Soldiers Return, Turkey in the Straw and concludes with Amazing Grace, a song synonymous with slavery and selected to conclude the work as a reflection of the war's primary goal. Each of the songs is scored in a psuedo-compositional style of an American composer including John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives and Leonard Bernstein.