this has to be one of the best ways to express love for one's country ........... play this way, tears are guaranteed!
If I may suggest another not particularly American " song" it would be the choir " Va pensiero" from the Verdi's Opera " Nabucco"........the reason being that in that opera this is the choir of the Jews in captivity under the Persians and it expresses the longing for freedom and for one's country that we all have and feel.
This is the great version of the Metropolitan Choir, it moves me to tears every time (even though I know that some folks in Italy used this a separatist anthem and I don't) because of its universal meaning.
Fly, thought, on wings of gold;
go settle upon the slopes and the hills,
where, soft and mild, the sweet airs
of our native land smell fragrant!
Greet the banks of the Jordan
and Zion's toppled towers...
Oh, my country so beautiful and lost!
Oh, remembrance so dear and so fatal!
Golden harp of the prophetic seers,
why dost thou hang mute upon the willow?
Rekindle our bosom's memories,
and speak to us of times gone by!
Mindful of the fate of Jerusalem,
give forth a sound of crude lamentation,
or may the Lord inspire you a harmony of voices
which may instill virtue to suffering.
