Been Doin’ Other Stuff

Among other things, NewMexiKen has been importing CDs into my iTunes music collection, now over 10,000 tracks. I decided with that many I really shouldn’t count on the shuffle to get nice sets of tunes. I had to make some playlists.

So then I began thinking up ideas for playlists. How about a tune for each of the 50 states I thought.

Here’s what I’ve got so far (just from what I had):

  1. Sweet Home Alabama / Lynyrd Skynyrd
  2. North to Alaska / Johnny Horton
  3. By the Time I Get to Phoenix / Glen Campbell
  4. California Dreamin’ / The Mamas & The Papas
  5. Rocky Mountain High / John Denver
  6. Georgia on My Mind / Ray Charles
  7. Hawai’i ’78 / Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
  8. Chicago / Frank Sinatra
  9. On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe / Johnny Mercer
  10. Kentucky Rain / Elvis Presley
  11. Louisiana 1927 / Randy Newman
  12. Streets of Baltimore / The Little Willies
  13. M.T.A. / The Kingston Trio
  14. Saginaw, Michigan / Lefty Frizzell
  15. Mississippi / Bob Dylan
  16. Kansas City / Wilbert Harrison
  17. Meet Me In Montana / Marie Osmond & Dan Seals
  18. Nebraska / Bruce Springsteen
  19. All the Way to Reno / R.E.M.
  20. New York City / The Peter Malick Group Featuring Norah Jones
  21. Carolina in My Mind / James Taylor
  22. Ohio / Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
  23. Take Me Back to Tulsa / Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
  24. Portland, Oregon / Loretta Lynn with Jack White
  25. Philadelphia Freedom / Elton John
  26. Tennessee Waltz / Eva Cassidy
  27. Waltz Across Texas / Ernest Tubb
  28. Moonlight in Vermont / Willie Nelson
  29. East Virginia / Joan Baez
  30. Grand Coulee Dam / Woody Guthrie
  31. Take Me Home, Country Roads / John Denver
  32. What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me) / Jerry Lee Lewis

Jill suggests George Thorogood’s “Delaware Slide.” And there’s Lee Ann Womack’s “A Little Past Little Rock.” (Reba’s “Little Rock” is another kind of rock.) Neil Young has a song “Albuquerque” and there’s Joe Glaser’s “The Lights of Albuquerque.”

How about it, any ideas?

21 thoughts on “Been Doin’ Other Stuff”

  3. Hmmm …

    Lyle Lovett’s North Dakota
    Michelle Shocked’s Anchorage
    Glenn Campbell’s Galveston, Marty Robbin’s El Paso, Pat Green’s Songs About Texas, REM’s Texarkana
    X’s Los Angeles
    and don’t forget Tennessee Flat Top Box
    😉

  6. One could do a lengthy playlist just with Texas — Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind, San Antonio Rose, Yellow Rose of Texas, All My Ex’s Live in Texas, Streets of Laredo, El Paso, Amarillo By Morning, Deep in the Heart of Texas — just off the top of my head.

  7. Oh, how I love the iTunes games!

    Lucero – Banks of the Arkansas, Raising Hell (Texas), and San Francisco

    Lucinda Williams – Lake Charles, Greenville (South Carolina), Lafayette, Jackson (Mississippi), Crescent City, Memphis Pearl, Minneapolis, Ventura (I cheated and looked at my iTunes library to remember all of her city/place songs)

    Ryan Adams – Dear Chicago; New York, New York

    Whiskeytown – Jacksonville Skyline, Lo-Fi Tennessee Mountain Angel

  8. Moon Over Miami; Tallahassee Lassie (sp?); A Pirate Looks at 40 (contains the line: I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast); Atlantic City – Springsteen; Miami 2021 – Billy Joel; New York State of Mind – also Billy Joel; You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go -Dylan (contains the line: I looked for you in old Honolula, San Francisco and Ashtabula); San Francisco Girls – Fevertree; and actually every body knows that Margaritaville IS Key West.

  9. You know, after digging around a bit, I find it is very sad that my birth state, New Jersey, has so few songs associated with it … given the great number of musicians who have called the state home. We gave voice to Count Basie, Sinatra, The Four Seasons, Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Living Color, Bon Jovi, Springsteen and many others.

    Springsteen seems the only one to celebrate the state at any length or frequency, though that’s a snapshot of the 70’s and 80’s. Miz Shoes got Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”, which would also be my preference. Teenyboppers will point you to “Jersey Girl” as well, but “Atlantic City” has the grit and despair that was the renaissance of the building of the new Atlantic City. Before the current casino craze, it was a mouldering, rotting shore town. Life after death, indeed.

    Leaving town and state names out, “Jungleland” and “Thunder Road” embody the character of NJ, as I knew it as a kid … before corrupt politicos, condos and malls turned it into what it is today.

    Another suggestion for Oklahoma: Gene Pitney, “24 hours from Tulsa”. Oldie, but goodie.

  11. Florida: Martin Mull’s “Am I In Heaven Or Am I In Miami?” Not sure the song was ever released, but it’s a great title – say it out loud to get the idea.
    Kansas: Shawn Colvin’s “Wichita Skyline”

  12. It appears nobody has yet mentioned Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine.

    Loretta Lynn and Jack White have a duet “Portland, Oregon.” “Well, Portland, Oregon, and sloe gin fizz, If that ain’t lovin tell me what is.” Just added.

    And, of course, Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska,” also added to the original list (which are tunes I actually have).

  13. Black Crowes’ Wyoming & Me
    and
    Slipknot’s Iowa

    Can’t help with the others. New England’s not much of a muse, is she.

  15. I KNOW the Martin Mull Am I In Heaven… (Am I getting tan or is it only freckles, I hope it is a tan, cause we sure are spending sheckles)

    New Hampshire. Huh. Where was the hotel in White Christmas? Would that count? And the Cowsills were FROM Newport, RI.

  17. (The band’s name is Drag the River, not P.S. Drag the River, just in case that’s not clear.)

  18. Eddie from Ohio:

    Minnesota, 1945
    No Left Turns in Jersey
    Old Dominion (Virginia)
    Independence, Indiana
    Mimosas in Missouri
    North Pacific Rain
    Bleeker to Broadway
    Tom Burleigh’s Dead (Harpers Ferry, WV)

  19. Here are a couple of songs for Idaho: B-52’s “Private Idano” and “Born In a Trunk” from the Judy Garland movie “A Star Is Born”. Admittedly, the latter song is not cool, but I have to admit some fondness for it simply because I was born and raised in Pocatello.

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