30 Greatest sountern songs

Y’ALL MAGAZINE PRESENTS

A note from Y’all Magazine associate publisher Keith Sisson:

Basically all forms of American music originated in the American South. From The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers to Elvis Presley and Robert Johnson, the South’s cultural influence on American music cannot be argued nor measured. Why is it that so many Southerners go on to make some of the deepest marks in musical history? Perhaps it could be the people and the place that inspires them. There is no doubt that the South has the highest concentration of regional pride in the country and that pride can be illustrated by our music. That got all of us at Y’all Magazine thinking about what the greatest Southern songs of all time would be.

The criteria would have to be that the songs provoke a uniquely Southern experience, either by place or emotion. The songs could be of any format and would need to have stood the test of time. The following is a list of songs we rank as the “Greatest Southern Songs.” We hope you enjoy our list. If you feel we have made and error in the rankings or left something out, we would like to hear from you. Please email us with your feedback at southernsongs@yall.com or leave us a comment at www.yall.com.

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When Virginia-born singer songwriter Steve Earle moved to Texas during his adolescence, there was no doubt he wanted to be a musician. He dropped out of school in ninth grade and moved to Houston to learn about the music business. Then after moving to Nashville, his acclaim, talent and hard-line political views made him stand out from mainstream country artists.

The album Copperhead Road was released in 1988, and received gold status. Its title song tells the story of a family of moonshine bootleggers in East Tennessee. The story culminates with the son returning from the Vietnam War to Johnson County where he transforms the family business from moonshine to growing “seed from Columbia and Mexico.” The song made reference to another bootlegging song, “The Ballad Of Thunder Road,” as the sheriff implied to the boy’s mother that his father had died in a car wreck while running whiskey into Knoxville.

Moonshine references, the glamorized tradition of bootlegging and suped-up cars along with the conflicted expectation of Vietnam-era patriotism all combine to make “Copperhead Road” a song that will live within American and Southern pop culture for years to come. In addition to the song’s accomplished theme and detached overtone, it is also credited with helping to make line dancing popular as the song inspired a popular dance that is timed with its beat. .....................................................................................................

In 1977, Georgia native Jerry Reed had already spent years on the country music scene. Throughout that time, he garnered two No. 1 hits; the first chart-topper was the self-penned “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot.” The second was the song “Lord, Mr. Ford,” written by Dick Feller. Reed and Feller teamed-up as songwriters to compose a song that would help shape a pop-culture movement and give score to one of the top grossing films of that year, Smokey And The Bandit.

Like so many songs that are written specifically for movies, “East Bound and Down” is a summary of the film’s plot. Reed tells the story of two professional truck drivers who have been paid to make a bootlegging run from Atlanta, Ga., to Texarkana, Texas, and back within 28 hours. The bounty: Coors beer.

Federal liquor and state tax laws made it impossible to legally buy Coors east of Texas, forcing a minor bootlegging fad in the 1970s. Laws were repealed or relaxed in the ‘80s making way for Coors to legally be distributed in the rest of the South.

The song “East Bound And Down,” as well as the movie, further introduced a generation of kids to trucker-talk and CB handles that would continue to be popular in the rural South until the availability of affordable cellular phones in the late ‘90s.

“East Bound And Down” spent two weeks at No. 2 on the charts in 1977, and Smokey And The Bandit was the second grossing movie of the year, losing the top spot only to Star Wars.

When the late Nashville songwriter Bobby Russell wrote “The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia” in 1972, his then wife, Vicki Lawrence, recorded the demo in hopes that Liza Minnelli would release the song as a single. The song was first pitched to Cher, but her husband and manager, Sonny Bono, passed on the song, thinking it would offend her Southern fans.

Lawrence went on to release the Southern Gothic up-tempo ballad herself and earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.

The plot-rich, story-telling lyrics of the song feature a young man returning home from a two-week trip to find out that his wife has had numerous affairs in his absence, one with his best friend Andy Wooloh. Going home to confront his wife, he finds an empty house and assumes she left town. Seeking revenge on his friend Andy, he finds the “only thing Papa left him and that was a gun.” He arrives at Andy’s house to find that Andy was already dead. Firing a shot in the air to flag down a passing sheriff, he gets charged with the murder. A judge showed up that night, finds the main character in the song guilty and sentences him to die before the night’s end. It was important for the trial to end soon as the judge didn’t want his affair with the wife to come to light either, as “the judge in the town has blood stains on his hands.” The song concludes with the confession of the narrator (the sister) admitting to the murders and claiming her brother was lynched before she could take credit for the crimes.

Tanya Tucker recorded a slightly different version of the song for a 1981 movie bearing the same title. Southern justice was taken to extremes again in 1991 when Reba McEntire recorded a cover of the song on her album For My Broken Heart.

The song peaked at No.12, but the video received high marks from the industry. Today, both the song and video continue to receive considerable airplay. .....................................................................................................

Few People had a more influential role in 1960s television than Missouri native Paul Henning. As a writer for series like The Andy Griffith Show, Henning went on to make his mark on show business as a creator for many of the rural sitcoms of the era.

He had a hand in developing Green Acres, and he created Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies. Based on experiences while camping in the Ozarks, Henning developed the concept for The Beverly Hillbillies, and wrote the music and lyrics to its opening theme song, “The Ballad Of Jed Clampett.” While the purpose of the song was to provide a back-story for the sitcom, it became as popular as the show itself. It reached 44 on the Billboard Charts in 1962, and has been sampled or covered from artists like Neal McCoy and Kid Rock.

Jerry Scoggins, a part-time singer and stockbroker, sang the original version of the song, which features the bluegrass stylings of legends Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. In 1993, a then retired Scoggins heard that 20th Century Fox was making a movie based on the television series. Scoggins contacted the studio only to learn that the film’s producers had no idea he was still alive.

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Cash sing the theme song, the film’s director, Penelope Spheeris, insisted that Scoggins have the honors. Prior to his death in 2004, Scoggins claimed to have sang the song over 1,000 times. .....................................................................................................

Prior to becoming a household name, in 1970 John Denver was playing at The Cellar Door, a folk music club in Washington, D.C., with two other musicians, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. Following their first performance of a two-week gig, the three left the club and began an impromptu jam session at one of their houses. It was there where Danoff and Nivert first played a raw version of “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” for Denver. The two had began writing the ballad while on a trip to visit Nivert’s family in rural Maryland, thus the first drafts of the song were about Maryland; only later to be changed to West Virginia.

Denver knew the song was a hit the first time he heard it, and the three worked on the music and altered the lyrics throughout the night. They debuted the song at The Cellar Door as an encore on December 30, 1970. The song was so new, that they had to read the lyrics from folded pieces of paper. As the legend goes, the song received more than five minutes of standing ovation, a record not broken to this day at the club.

The song was released in the spring of ‘71, on Denver’s Poems, Prayers And Promises album. RCA almost gave up on the single after little airplay and little feedback. Denver urged them to be patient with the release. They did, and it paid off. By late summer of that year the single was certified as a million-seller.

Since 1972, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” has been played prior to every home football game at West Virginia University. It’s played again at the end of victorious home games,

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where fans and students are encouraged to sing along with the players. Resolutions have been brought before the West Virginia House of Delegates to officially make the popular ballad the state song, but for a variety of reasons, this has not happened.

The song continues to be the signature song for the late singer. .....................................................................................................

Born in Abilene, Texas, songwriter Dennis Linde penned countless hits over his 40 years in the business. After writing “Burning Love” for Elvis Presely, Linde enjoyed moderate success through the ‘70s and ‘80s. It wasn’t until 1993 when three of his songs (“Bubba Shot The Jukebox,” “John Deere Green” and “Janie Baker’s Love Slave”) all became hits, that he truly gained industry-wide recognition—being named the Nashville Songwriter Association’s “Songwriter of the Year.”

With the many hits and songwriting success that Linde enjoyed, it’s hard to believe that one of his biggest songs was almost forgotten. “Callin’ Baton Rouge” is a fun upbeat tale of a traveling man who “spent last night in the arms of a girl in Louisiana.” And upon leaving town has grown more and more fond of her, to the point of obsession.

“Callin’ Baton Rouge” was first recorded in 1978 by the Oak Ridge Boys. New Grass Revival released their own version of the song in 1987, and it peaked at No. 37 on the country charts. It wasn’t until 1993 when country music’s biggest star, Garth Brooks, released the song on his In Pieces album that it became a mega-hit, as the album release debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

Today, in addition to continued airplay on radio, the song “Callin’ Baton Rouge” can be heard in its entirety prior to home LSU football games, where up to 100,000 Tiger fans sing along during the pregame warmups. The song is also a signature track on Brooks’ Double Live album. .....................................................................................................

In the late 1950s music executives discovered an Arkansas school principal who enjoyed writing songs about historical events as a way to help his students learn history. Jimmie Driftwood would then have a chance for his catchy little songs to be heard by millions. Signed by RCA in 1958, Driftwood had originally approached a different record label in efforts to get a recording deal. Hit record producer Buddy Killen, who is largely credited with launching the careers of Dolly Parton and Roger Miller, heard the first two lines of Driftwood’s “Battle Of New Orleans,” and told Driftwood, “Son if that’s the kinda stuff you’ve got, you’d better go home. We couldn’t sell one record of that.”

Following the release of a 12-cut album in 1958, Driftwood enjoyed moderate success, but it wasn’t until a well-known country artist named Johnny Horton recorded the “Battle Of New Orleans” that Driftwood’s song became a true hit. Horton’s song

was No. 1 on the charts for ten consecutive weeks in 1959.

After the song’s success, Driftwood ran into the first record producer that turned him down. As the story goes, Killen promptly turned around, bent over and instructed Driftwood to “kick me!”

Horton’s version won a Grammy for Best Country & Western Recording and would prove to be the biggest hit of his short career. At age 35, Horton was killed by a drunk driver after playing at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas, the same place where Hank Williams last performed prior to his death. In an odd twist, Horton’s widow, Billie Jean Jones, was also married to the late Williams prior to his 1953 death.

“The Battle of New Orleans” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001, and is listed as one of Billboard’s “Top Songs of the Century.”

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a parody version of the classic song was written by radio personality Chuck Redden and was recorded and released by country comedian Ray Stevens. .....................................................................................................

In the early ‘80s, there was no TIVO, and only few people had a video recorder, thus there was never a need to ask your fellow Southerner what they would be doing on a Friday night.

The television network CBS owned Friday nights with shows like Dallas and The Dukes Of Hazzard. Although the theme song to Dallas is as well known as the show itself, the theme song for The Dukes Of Hazzard would not only become one of the most recognizable theme songs ever, it would become one of the signature songs of country music legend Waylon Jennings.

Jennings was asked to write the theme song for the series that involved the antics of two cousins trying to stay out of trouble in small town Georgia while avoiding the inept and corrupt county officials.

The radio version of the song was a No.1 hit for Jennings in 1980. For the TV series, Jennings performed a slightly different version than the radio release. The TV version includes the verse, “they keep showing my hands, but not my face on TV,” which is a reference to the opening credits of the show where all you see is a tight shot is the singer’s hands playing the guitar.

As the popularity of the TV series grew into television movies and major motion pictures, the theme song was covered by many different artists, most recently Willie Nelson, in the 2005 Warner Bros. release staring Jessica Simpson and Johnny Knoxville. Jennings’ son, Shooter, is known for singing the song as a tribute to his father, as well. .....................................................................................................

Picking the greatest Texas song could be worthy of an entire magazine. How could one begin to rank “Eyes Of Texas, ” “El Paso,” “Amarillo By Morning,” and to some extent, the theme song to Dallas against each other? Simply put, its more difficult than trying to figure out who shot “J.R.” That’s why we at Y’all

are not even going to attempt to do so. From Tex Ritter, to Marty Robbins, to George Strait, the state of Texas has been immortalized in song since the first time settlers crossed the Sabine River. We at Y’all love Southern college football, so songs that are related to football game festivities have a certain degree of preference; and since the University of Texas plays “Eyes Of Texas” prior to all sporting events, we slightly give the Horns’ pick an edge. The song was also sung at the funeral of former first lady Lady Bird Johnson. .....................................................................................................

Co-written by Merle Haggard and Roy Edward Burris (Haggard’s drummer), “Okie From Muskogee” was originally written as a satire of small-town, middle-American values at the height of the Vietnam War. Haggard’s father was from Oklahoma, and the song was intended to illustrate as much of a generational divide in the country as a cultural divide. While larger cities were sites of anti-war protests, small-town America remained largely untouched by the social movements of the era.

The song’s lyrics spoke of patriotic residents who never burnt their draft cards, never used illegal narcotics, or wore beads and sandals like people in West Coast cities.

The satiric song did not go over well with middle-Americans from those small towns, perhaps that’s because they didn’t get the satire. Instead, they took a literal interpretation of the lyrics and made the song an instant hit.

The result of the song’s success was an overwhelming scream from the silent majority of the 1960s, whom for so long felt so out-numbered by the constant beating of the pop culture drum.

Finally, somebody was giving them a voice, albeit a satirical one.

The song climbed to No. 1 in 1969 and stayed there for four weeks. It was the third in a string of four consecutive No. 1 hits

by Haggard, which included “Workin’ Man Blues,” and “The Fightin’ Side Of Me,” a period of Haggard’s career that forever cemented his title as the “The Poet Of The Common Man” “Okie From Muskogee” won the CMA single of the year that year, and following the song’s success Haggard recorded a live version in Muskogee, Okla., that also became famous.

Politically, the song’s success grew from the anti-antiwar movement, from people who were tired of the protests and the decay of traditional American values. Historically, “Okie From Muskogee” may have accidentally been the first pop-culture reference to what would become the cultural divide of modern political ideological differences between Americans on the East and West coast, versus those in the South and Midwest. .....................................................................................................

Like many songs written in the 19th century, “My Old Kentucky Home,” shares conflicting stories of its origin, along with a few lyric changes that have been passed down through history.

The song was written by (presumably) America’s first professional songwriter, Stephen Foster. Foster (1826-1864) is credited with writing such standards as “Oh Susanna,” “Suwanne River,” and “Camptown Races.” While all of these songs have been sung for generations and have had countless references within pop

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culture entertainment, “My Old Kentucky Home” remains his lasting legacy.

As the official state song of Kentucky, “My Old Kentucky Home” was originally called, “Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night.”

The song describes life on a slave plantation, and in the 1850s was widely seen as being sympathetic to slaves. As legend has it, the song was inspired while Foster was traveling from his native Pennsylvania to New Orleans. Along the way he stopped to visit his cousins, the Rowan family, at their Bardstown, Ky., home, Federal Hill. However, documentation of Foster’s trip does not support claims that he actually visited Bardstown and references in the song point to a small log cabin instead of a stately mansion. Also, Foster’s trip took place in 1852, after the first draft of the song had been penned.

Some theories point to letters from Foster’s sister, who actually lived at Federal Hill for a while, as the inspiration for the song. Another clue to the song’s inspiration can be found in the song’s original title, “Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night.” This was around the time that another “Uncle Tom” was becoming famous, thanks to an 1851 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Set on a Kentucky plantation, the best-selling novel of the 19th century brought to life the realities of slavery.

Regardless of the song’s inspiration, Foster’s legacy as the father of American songwriting lives on through an almost daily tribute within the Bluegrass State. The revised lyrics of the song, changed in 1986 to become more politically correct, can today be sung and heard at both University of Louisville and University of Kentucky football and basketball games, as well as at the Kentucky Derby, where every year since 1930 the song is played while horses are led to the post at Churchill Downs. .....................................................................................................

Both Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn were major forces in country music before they recorded their first song together in 1971. “After The Fire Is Gone” is a somber song about the heartaches of a loveless marriage. Twitty and Lynn would go on to record 14 hits together, cementing them as one of the all time best country music duet acts. But it was their third release together that will forever be the signature song of their vocal collaboration.

Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen wrote “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” and in 1973, Twitty and Lynn made it a No. 1 hit. The fun, light-hearted song is an upbeat tale of a guy in Mississippi that falls for a Louisiana girl. The song centers around the Mississippi River obstructing the ability for them to get together. (In real life Twitty grew up on the banks of the river in Friars Point, Miss.)

The hit would be one of four No. 1 hits the two would share together. The year of the song’s release, Twitty and Lynn won the CMA vocal duo award.

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At age 18, Georgia-born classically trained violinist Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant decided he would rather play a fiddle in a western band than play with the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra. Seven years later, while performing at a Milwaukee hotel he met Matilda Genevieve Scaduto (nicknamed ‘Felice’ by Bryant).

The two married and became one of the greatest husband-wife songwriting teams in history.

In the early years of their marriage the couple struggled. It wasn’t until 1948 when Little Jimmy Dickens recorded “Country Boy” that the couple received their first break as songwriters.

What followed would be a string of legendary hits, including “Bye Bye, Love,” Wake Up, Little Susie,” “Love Hurts,” and “All I Have To Do Is Dream.” However, their most notable contribution to Southern culture came in 1967 while working on a collection of slow-tempo songs for Archie Campbell and Chet Atkins. Working in Gatlinburg, Tenn., the duo needed a break from writing those slow-tempo songs; ten minutes later they had penned “Rocky Top” Originally recorded by the Osborne Brothers in 1967, it wasn’t until Lynn Anderson recorded the song three years later that it became a hit. The song is about a place named Rocky Top, which is located along the Appalachian Trail in part of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The lyrics speak of a failed love affair with a mountain girl and East Tennessee’s heritage of moonshining. Though the hit only reached as high as No. 17 on the Billboard charts, its national attention created a regional pride for the area. The song is one of seven official state songs for the state of Tennessee, and today its perhaps best known as the unofficial fight song at the University of Tennessee.

“The Pride of the Southland” marching band has been granted a perpetual license to perform the song on the field as often as the team’s success dictates. UT legend Peyton Manning is wellremembered for leading the band in “Rocky Top” following a come-from-behind game-winning drive against Auburn in the 1997 SEC Championship game during his senior season.

Tennessee fans have come to embrace the song as University of Alabama fans have begrudgingly had to deal with the fact that the fight song all Bama fans hate the most was actually written by two people with the last name of “Bryant!” .....................................................................................................

Y’all columnist and best-selling author Ronda Rich once wrote of the Alan Jackson hit “Chattahoochee,” that “it established Jackson as a songwriting genius on the grounds that he was able to find something that rhymed with the word ‘Chattahoochee.’”

By the song’s debut in ‘93, Jackson had already established himself as a lasting power in country music. Prior to the release of “Chattahoochee,” the third release from Jackson’s third album, he had experienced near unprecedented success. Eleven of the first twelve releases from Jackson charted in the Top 5, including “Chattahoochee” and six other No. 1 singles. But perhaps it was not the success of those first three albums that would establish Jackson as a country music legend-in-waiting; instead

it may have been the relationships established with Nashville insiders Jim McBride and Keith Stegall that lifted Jackson to superstardom.

By the time “Chattahoochee” was released, Jackson had already co-written songs with both McBride and Stegall, with Stegall producing all but one song on Jackson’s third album, A Lot About Livin’ (And A Little About Love), which took its name from a verse in the “Chattahoochee” song. Jackson and McBride, who enjoyed prior songwriting success together with “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow,” co-penned “Chattahoochee.” The song is a mild-hearted tribute to Jackson’s formative years growing up near the famous river in his hometown of Newnan, Ga. It not only serves as a nostalgic reminder of the guilty-pleasures of misspent youth, but more importantly it gives validation to the innocence and freedom from responsibility that is too often stripped from modern adolescence.

The single spent four weeks at No. 1 and was the CMA single of the year in 1993. Country music video fans will remember the video, which featured Jackson waterskiing in his signature torn blue jeans and white cowboy hat.

The video and the song still receive considerable airtime today. Despite the later successes of the 9/11 tribute single, “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning),” and the Jimmy Buffett duet, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” the song “Chattahoochee” remains Alan Jackson’s signature song. .....................................................................................................

In 1964, the Ole Miss Rebels’ all-SEC Quarterback Jim Weatherly completed his senior season in Oxford with a 55-1 record. While never leaving football behind completely, the Pontotoc, Miss., native chose to focus his time on songwriting.

Almost a decade would pass until Weatherly began to make his mark on music history.

One night while living in Los Angeles, Weatherly called a friend and flag football teammate only to have his friend’s new girlfriend answer the phone. The friend was Lee Majors, and the new girlfriend was a relatively new starlet, Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett told Weatherly that she was packing for a “midnight plane Houston.” Following the telephone call, Weatherly couldn’t get that phrase out of his head. Roughly 45 minutes later Weatherly had penned a song about a girl who goes to L.A. to become a star, fails, moves back home and takes her new boyfriend with her. Weatherly recorded “Midnight Plane To Houston,” as a slow country song that received relatively little success. Less than a year later, an Atlanta-based record producer wanted to pitch the song as an R&B cut to Cissy Houston (Whitney Houston’s mother.) The producer, Sonny Limbo, wanted to make the song more soulful and requested that the title of the song change to “Midnight Train To Georgia.” The song was recorded and barely even charted for Houston, but Gladys Knight heard the new version of the song. By adding some background vocals by The Pips and a little extra groove, Knight went on to record the

signature song of her career.

Gladys Knight and The Pips had a No. 1 hit with the single in 1973, and won a Grammy for the release in 1974. That same year, Weatherly was named Nashville Songwriter of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).

In 1999, “Midnight Train To Georgia” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. .....................................................................................................

2005 was a big year for country music star John Rich.

His Nashville-based movement, MuzikMafia, owned that year.

It was hard to find any one week in 2005 that John Rich or a member of the Mafia wasn’t on the charts as either a performer or a songwriter. Even though Rich’s own album, Horse Of A Different Color, with duet partner Big Kenny, enjoyed great success, Rich will also be remembered for a song he specifically wrote for Star, Miss., native Faith Hill.

Hill was already a household name in ‘05. She enjoyed success on the country and pop charts as well as Hollywood fame following the release of the motion picture The Stepford Wives in 2004. Rich recognized that with all of her newfound success that she might be looking for a way to reestablish herself as a country artist as opposed to a pop music and movie star. He, along with songwriter Adam Shoenfield, then penned an instant classic, “Mississippi Girl.”

The song not only serves as a short biography of Hill’s life, but also it presents a defense to all who have accused her of losing her roots. It was Hill’s first No. 1 country single in six years, taking the top spot on September 3, 2005, just five days after Hurricane Katrina destroyed and devastated the Gulf Coast of Hill’s home state. In the wake of the worst natural disaster in American history, the song became an anthem for state pride, perseverance, and success. Just weeks later, on October 1, Hill performed a live version of her hit song during a nationally

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televised Katrina Relief fundraiser that was broadcast from the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss.

Representing a shift in the way in which we purchase music, “Mississippi Girl” will forever hold the designation as being the 500-millionth song download within Apple iTunes file-sharing application. .....................................................................................................

The 1944 Louisiana governor’s race featured one of the era’s most notable country music singers. Jimmie Davis was known for singing his hit song from 1940, “You Are My Sunshine,” at campaign rallies and political stump speeches throughout the state—often times from the back of his horse, aptly named “Sunshine.” Claiming he had written the song while in grad school at LSU, research later determined that Davis actually bought the song from another songwriter and placed his name on it, a practice common during that time.

The original songwriter is still a mystery. Some people believe that Davis bought the song from brothers Paul and Hoke Rice, who had recorded the song a year before Davis did. A month prior to the Rice’s recording, the song was recorded by the Pine Ridge Boys, making Davis the third person to put the single on vinyl. Some say the song was adapted from a poem, others claim the original song was written by a guy named Oliver Hood. Regardless of the confusion, Davis and his long-time sidekick, Charles Mitchell, are credited as songwriters and hold the 1940 copyright. Davis claimed to be the original songwriter all the way up to his death in 2000.

“You Are My Sunshine” has been recorded hundreds of times

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since the ‘40s, with the most popular version being that of Ray Charles, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard charts in 1962.

B.B. King to this day incorporates the song into his live performances. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and is listed as one of the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) Songs of the Century. “You Are My Sunshine” was made the official state song of Louisiana in 1977. In addition to countless movies and television shows, the song can also regularly be heard at Southern political events. .....................................................................................................

In 1967, Johnny Cash and June Carter won a Grammy for their duet hit, “Jackson.” The song is about a married couple whose “fire went out.” Both the husband and the wife talk about going to Jackson and taking part in the lively nightlife–each pledging to have more fun than the other. It is unclear if the song is talking about Jackson, Miss., or Jackson, Tenn. Generally speaking, people from Mississippi assume the song is about the Jackson on I-40 in Tennessee; while people from Tennessee assume the song is making reference to the capital of the Magnolia State. Regardless, the song has deep associations to Southern culture and country music history.

As depicted in the 2005 motion picture Walk The Line, “Jackson” was the duet that Carter and Cash were singing onstage in Canada when Johnny asked June to marry him. After refusal to answer the questions, after begging Johnny to keep singing and after the band refused to continue playing without Johnny’s blessing, June gave in and said “yes.” The two married a week later in Kentucky.

The original songwriters of “Jackson” are Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber (Leiber’s wife, German-born actress Gaby Rodgers, is often falsely credited with being a co-writer; however she was not, as Leiber would sometimes use her name as his pseudonym while writing music.) Wheeler played the song for Leiber and Leiber basically said the first half of the song was awful and that it should begin with its last verse. Wheeler was wary about starting the beginning of a song at the climax of its story, but as everyone now knows, it worked. “We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,” is the song’s opening line.

Wheeler recorded the song with Joan Sommer, a friend from Kentucky, singing the female lines. The recording eventually found its way to “The Man In Black.” The hit was one of countless hits for both Leiber and Wheeler, both of whom are in songwriter halls of fame.

Walden, Texas, native Bob McDill penned over thirty No. 1 country songs prior to his retirement in 2000. As a young student at Lamar University in the early 1960s, McDill played in a local band and performed in local clubs around Beaumont, Texas. One of his regular “fans” was an unknown Janis Joplin.

According to McDill, Joplin would do her homework while the band performed. After leaving Beaumont, McDill served in the Navy before moving to Memphis, Tenn., to pursue his songwriting ambitions.

The publishing company that McDill wrote for in Memphis was purchased by another Beaumont, Texan named “Cowboy” Jack Clement. Clement moved the company to Nashville. The popular thought at the time was that Nashville was going to become the hub of pop and rock music. McDill moved with the company to “Music City” in hopes of taking advantage of the changing trends.

After living on $25 a week for over a year, McDill realized that Rock and Roll was not coming to Nashville, thus forcing him to write songs for country artists. He heard George Jones sing, “A Good Year For The Roses,” and claims it was as if a light went off. McDill started studying country music and began writing, sometimes penning up to one song per week.

His first country hit was “Catfish John” for Johnny Russell.

Following that hit he met Don Williams and penned “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” after reading Robert Penn Warren’s A Place To Come To. The song was a big hit for McDill. The lyrics featured a richness not found in other country songs at the time. Lines like “a picture of Stonewall Jackson above my head,” and “I can still hear the soft Southern winds in the live oak trees,” and making reference to both Hank Williams Sr. and Tennessee Williams in the same line, brings the song close to every Southerners’ heart.

McDill also penned Mel McDaniel’s two biggest hits, “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On,” and the Cajun classic, “Louisiana Saturday Night.” “ Louisiana Saturday Night” is a song about country families and friends getting together on the weekends and having fun. The song, while not likely inspired by any one family or event, was likely loosely based on McDill’s own youth when his family would gather around the piano and play singalongs. “Louisiana Saturday Night” is often played at LSU games, and is a standard at every Louisiana piano bar and karaoke outlet.

McDill’s string of top hits include Alabama’s “Song Of The South” Alan Jackson’s “Gone Country,” Dan Seals’ “Everything That Glitters,” and Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” just to name a few.

McDill was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985. The week of his induction, six Bob McDill-written songs were on the Billboard charts. He retired from songwriting in 2000, citing the lack of radio airplay of country music legends as well as the fact that he found today’s newer artists to be less interesting.

A song doesn’t have to be a smash hit in order to become popular. That is evident from the success of “Carolina Girls.”

When the band Chairmen of the Board first came to the Carolinas, they noticed the girls there had a specific style. Band member Danny Woods noticed that New York girls and California girls had their own songs, and that girls from the Carolinas felt left out.

With the release of “Carolina Girls” in the famed mid-Atlantic beach music style, girls from both North and South Carolina had a reason to be prideful. General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board released the song in 1980, and it would prove to forever be an empowering and endearing song to not only Carolina girls in the ‘80s, but future generations of Carolina girls to come. The song spurned bumper stickers, license plates, and clothing. Girls from both states were proud of the song’s claim that “Carolina Girls (are) best in the world.”

The women’s athletic teams at the University of North Carolina use the song as an unofficial fight song. Other schools do similarly, some even having marching band adaptations. .....................................................................................................

To this date, the Charlie Daniels Band has only had one No.1 song; but that song was a huge hit. “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” was written by Charlie Daniels and five other bandmates. The song is almost spoken, rather than sung, and features a plot line of a fiddle player in Georgia that has an encounter with the Devil. The Devil is way behind in the stealing of souls and makes a deal with the song’s main character, Johnny. The two face-off in a fiddling competition. If Johnny wins, he gets to keep the Devil’s golden fiddle. If the Devil wins, he gets Johnny’s soul.

To the best of Daniels’ recollection, the “deal with the Devil” theme was inspired by a poem, “The Mountain Whippoorwill,” that Daniels had read in school. The song won the band a Grammy in 1979, as well as the CMA single of the year. The Recording Industry of Association of America (RIAA) has stated that the single is the top selling song of all time that features a name of one of the 50 U.S. states in the title…an amazing accomplishment when considering some of the other hits that would qualify for such designation (“Sweet Home Alabama” and “Georgia On My Mind”).

Following the song’s radio success in 1979, it was prominently featured in the 1980 motion picture Urban Cowboy, where the CDB performed it on stage during a scene in the movie. The song has enjoyed almost 30 years of success and was introduced to a whole new generation of fans in the movie Coyote Ugly, which revived and sexed-up a few traditional dance moves that are heavily associated with Appalachian music.

Other versions of the song, including sequels, have been recorded. But it’s the original recording of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” that continues to be a defining song of the Southern music experience.

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The impact of Hank Williams Sr. on modern country music can never be exaggerated. His first No.1 hit, released in 1949, was the most successful single of his career. “The Lovesick Blues” spent 16 weeks at the top of the chart. Although Williams’ career is dotted with multiple No. 1 hits, it was the Cajun stylings of his 1952 release, “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” that would prove to be one of his most critically acclaimed (and certainly most unique) songs.

Spending 14 weeks as the top song on the charts, “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” introduced all of America to Cajun culture and cuisine via the lyrics and arrangement of the song. The melody is based on the Cajun song “Grand Texas,” but the lyrics and theme of the song changed. Perhaps the Cajun-French phrases that appear in the song, along with Williams’ references to traditional Louisiana dishes like “jambalaya, crawfish pie and file´ gumbo,” were inspired from Williams’ early performances on the television program Louisiana Hayride, even though the program was based in Shreveport, La., which is far north from traditional Cajun country.

Williams is credited as the song’s writer, but a writer named Moon Mullican is sometimes credited as a co-writer. Williams may have purchased the rights to the song from Mullican. A researcher from within the Mullican family claims the song was written about the good times that were had while visiting a bar owned by Yvonne Little in South Louisiana. A character named “Yvonne” being affectionately mentioned in the song supports this.

The song is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and is listed as one of the top songs of the century. To this day, it is still revered with great pride from the Cajun community. .................................

When Hank Williams Jr. began performing at age eight, his mother billed him as a Hank Williams Sr. impersonator. She even went as far as having a wardrobe tailored for the younger Williams that looked similar to that of his late father’s. Through the ‘60s and early ‘70s, “Bocephus” enjoyed some success, but he wanted to have a bigger impact on the music industry than just being the son of a legend.

The music of Hank Jr. changed just after 1973, when he moved to Alabama. While in his parents’ native state he began some groundbreaking collaborations with country stars Waylon Jennings and Charlie Daniels; but he also worked with Southern rockers like the Marshall Tucker Band. As he was trying to reinvent his music, disaster struck. While rock climbing in Montana in 1975, Hank Jr. fell over 400 feet down the side of the mountain. He would spend the next two years going through reconstructive surgeries (he covers up the scars with his trademark thick facial hair and dark sunglasses).

In 1979, with the release of the album Family Tradition, his musical transition was complete. Southern rock, mixed with country, blues and whole lot of attitude, lifted Williams to the top. A string of hits would follow – songs like “Texas Women,” “Dixie On My Mind,” “This Ain’t Dallas,” “Country State Of Mind,” “Young Country,” and “If The South Would’ve Won” – all display Williams’ well-known style. His signature hit was a 1981 No. 1 single, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” which of course has been adapted as the theme to Monday Night Football. Additionally, University of Arkansas fans have come to adopt the song “Hog Wild” as an unofficial anthem, playing it prior to home football games in Fayetteville.

Hank Jr. sang songs about the South and Dixie before it was cool. All of his songs, even the ones that are not uniquely Southern, deserve a place in Southern history and culture forever. .....................................................................................................

When singer/songwriter Marc Cohn was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, he probably never guessed he would write a song that would strike an emotional chord with an entire city, and conversely would export that city’s mystique all around the world. He certainly wouldn’t have planned on writing such a song about a city he had never even been to.

Cohn had a life-changing experience when he first arrived in the Mid-South and heard a sermon from The Reverend Al Green. Immersed in blues music, and the legends of W.C. Handy and Elvis Presley, Cohn was moved. But inspiration didn’t come until he traveled a few miles south of Memphis to a Tunica County, Miss., juke joint named “The Hollywood.” There he would have a chance encounter with a 70-year-old black pianist and singer, Muriel Davis Wilkins. The rest is immortalized in his song.

“Walkin’ In Memphis” is a first-person narrative about Cohn’s experiences while visiting Memphis and the emotional

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appreciation he has for its varying cultures. Giving praise to Al Green, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Delta Blues, Beale Street, gospel music and even fried catfish, Cohn captures the magical spirit of the city. Perhaps the best line in the song is the soulful affirmation of faith when Muriel, the pianist at The Hollywood, asked the Jewish Cohn if he “was a Christian child,” to which Cohn promptly responded, “Ma’am, I am tonight.”

For those who have a passion for Memphis-area culture and history the song will forever be cherished as one of the greatest songs of all time. For people who have never visited The Bluff City, the song becomes an audio tour guide, directing people on how to experience the city. Once people follow in the footsteps of the song, it becomes real easy to forever have an emotional connection to Cohn’s poetry.

Cohn’s own version of the song peaked at No. 13 on the charts and won him a Grammy in 1991 for “Best New Artist.”

It is the most requested number at Memphis’ top nightclub and piano bar, Silky O’Sullivan’s on Beale Street. Upon requests, pianist Craig Shuster of Silky’s will be happy to “welcome you to Memphis” with a spirited rendition of the song multiple times throughout your visit. .....................................................................................................

Loretta Lynn had already spent a decade in the music business and garnered eighteen Top 10 songs by 1970; but it was in ‘70 that she recorded the song that would forever be associated with her life story, “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Lynn is the only writer of her signature song, which became the name of her autobiography, which led to a motion picture release as well. The song is simply about growing up amidst humble beginnings and a loving family in Eastern Kentucky. As the song depicts, her father worked in the Van Lear coal mine and raised eight kids on miner’s pay. The lyrics illustrate the devotion to family and the virtue of unselfishness that both Lynn’s parents portrayed. The song garners sympathy for families that are similar to Lynn’s from those whom are more fortunate, but more importantly displays the triumph of the Kentuckian’s accomplishments and—a morale-booster that proves that success can be achieved by anyone from any background.

The song was a No.1 hit in 1970. In 1980, the motion picture, Coal Miner’s Daughter, was released with actress Sissy Spacek playing Lynn. Singing all of Lynn’s songs for the soundtrack, Spacek won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Lynn in the movie. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” is listed as one of the songs of the century and one of the greatest country songs ever recorded. .....................................................................................................

Following his graduation with a history degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, Jimmy Buffett became a reporter for Billboard and moved to Nashville. He had little success as a singer/songwriter in his early career. From 197076 he released seven albums, none of which cracked the Top 20. Buffett began a shift in his style of music throughout that

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time. While playing in New Orleans, country music star Jerry Reed offered to take Buffett to Key West. It was there where Buffett started mixing country, pop, island beats, and folk music together to create his own style.

By the time 1977 rolled around, Buffett was transformed into the performer we know today. He released the album Changes In Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, which contained a single that would forever be known as his signature song, “Margaritaville.”

This was a song perhaps not about a fictitious place, but instead about a state of mind. The song is also a tribute to its namesake, the margarita.

Buffett would go on to create a Margaritaville brand. Selling drink mixes, brewing beer (Land Shark), and opening restaurants across the country. Today, he is not only a musician but an author, businessperson, and part-time beach bum; and it all got started when he was “searching for his long lost shaker of salt.” .....................................................................................................

With the group Alabama’s unprecedented success in the 1980s, the country was introduced to a new sound. With their blend of country and Southern rock, Alabama became one of the most successful acts of all time. The group had 41 No. 1 hits during their career, including a streak of 21 chart-topping hits in a row. Ranking their songs would be near impossible. Listing their famous songs that are uniquely Southern and worthy of acclaim may be an equally daunting task.

Prior to signing a major record deal, Alabama spent most of their time playing at The Bowery, a night-spot in Myrtle Beach, S.C., an experience that would be inspiration for one of their

later hits, “Dancin’, Shaggin’ On The Boulevard.” Their first successful release, and arguably the bands signature song, “My Home’s In Alabama,” only made it as far as No.17 on the charts in 1980. With that one release though, the autobiographical theme of the song introduced listeners to the band for the first time. The song is about a young man from Alabama who travels across the country in an effort to make it in the music business while not losing his roots. After hearing the song, it was as if every new fan instantly connected with the band and their music.

RCA quickly took notice, signing the foursome to a major record deal. A string of hits would follow, including Southern anthems like “Tennessee River,” “Mountain Music,” “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle In The Band),” “Song Of The South,” “High Cotton,” “Southern Star,” and “Down Home.”

Perhaps their greatest Southern song though, is the band’s overall ninth No. 1 hit, “Dixieland Delight.” This catchy tune was penned by songwriter Ronnie Rogers, and it marked the beginning of a long relationship between Alabama and Rogers’ music. Everything about the song is uniquely Southern, so much so, that best-selling author Clay Travis borrowed the title for his book based on the traditions of SEC football. “Dixieland Delight” is also sung by students and fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium at University of Alabama football games in Tuscaloosa.

In addition to their songs that praise the South and its culture, the Ft. Payne, Ala., group released what could be called the greatest secular Christmas song of all time, “Christmas In Dixie” in 1982. The song remains a Christmas tradition in most every Southern household.

Alabama is retired from touring now (each of its members are doing individual projects). Country music historians widely credit lead singer Randy Owen and the guys for laying the groundwork for future country bands to become successful. .....................................................................................................

The stock market crashed in 1929, and Indiana-born attorney Hoagy Carmichael had just lost all of his savings. He was working as a songwriter in New York City at the time and was considering a career change, as he hadn’t realized any success. But later that year Louis Armstrong recorded one of Carmichael’s songs, “Rockin’ Chair.” The recording was enough to keep Carmichael in the songwriting business. He would combine his very next composition with lyrics written by Stuart Gorrell and the two together would go on to write one of the most recognizable songs in all of music, “Georgia.”

Carmichael never lived in Georgia, and it was unclear at the time if the song was about the state of Georgia, or a girl named Georgia (as that was the name of Carmichael’s sister), the lyrics of the song could apply to either. Carmichael set the record straight in his 1965 autobiography when he wrote of an encounter with musician Frankie Trumbauer. Trumbauer told Carmichael, “Write a song called ‘Georgia.’ Nobody lost much writing about the South.” So then it was settled, the composition was based on the state.

Carmichael first recorded the song in 1930. The next year Trumbauer recorded a version that made the Top 10 charts. It wasn’t until almost thirty years later when Ray Charles released

his R&B version of the song until it became a monster success.

“Georgia” was Charles’ second release from his new label, ABC. The song became a Billboard No. 1, the first of his career, and one of only three that he would ever have on the top of the main chart. Willie Nelson would claim a No. 1 country hit with “Georgia” in 1978.

In 1979, Charles, a Georgia native, would perform the number in front of the Georgia General Assembly, a move that would go far to heal the wounds of race relations in the state as Charles was previously banned from playing there do to his integrationists beliefs. The next month the Georgia Assembly voted to make the “Georgia” the official state song of the Peach State.

“Georgia On My Mind,” taken from the song, would go on to become a slogan for the state. Billboard has the Ray Charles version listed as one of the 50 greatest songs of all time.

At Charles’ funeral in 2004, Willie Nelson performed the hit.

Music composer Carmichael died in 1981, but not before he saw the song he wrote in 1930 become No.1 hits for two different artists as well as the official state song of Georgia. .....................................................................................................

When Lynard Skynard bassist Ed King first heard the band’s guitarist Gary Rossington playing an unusual guitar riff, he was inspired. That night in 1973, King had a dream in which he composed the entire song. The next morning he played the music to a song that would become “Sweet Home Alabama” to the band’s other members. Rossington’s guitar riffs can still be heard at the beginning of the hit.

Written by band members King, Rossington and Ronnie Van Zant, “Sweet Home Alabama” was a lyrical response to two controversial Neil Young songs, “Southern Man,” and “Alabama.” The band felt that Young’s songs (which preached of a history of racism and slavery in the South) were an unfair generalization of the views held by most Southerners. Following “Sweet Home Alabama’s” release in ‘74, Lynard Skynard had to answer some controversy of their own: the song’s second verse, “In Birmingham they love the governor,” which on the surface seemed to be an endorsement of the state’s segregationists governor George Wallace. The response from the band was that the following line, “We all did what we could do,” talks about efforts to vote Wallace out of office. They also make note that the background vocals in the song at that part were “Boo, boo, boo,” which they say is affirmative rejection of Wallace’s politics.

The song only reached as high as No. 8 on the charts, but it became the single greatest Southern Rock anthem of all time.

Virtually all rock and country artists that have come along since the 1970s have been influenced in one way or another by Lynard Skynard. The song itself has been incorporated into countless pop culture references. The movies Forrest Gump and Crimson Tide both prominently feature the song. A 2002 motion picture release starring Reese Witherspoon not only featured the song, but also took its name from the song’s title. Recent KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) promotions even feature the recognizable music from the popular song. In 2008, Kid Rock released a hit single, “All Summer Long,” which is a story of a particular summer during Rock’s adolescents spent in Northern Michigan MARCH/APRIL 2009 • Y’ALL

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in which he and friends listened to “‘Sweet Home Alabama’ all summer long.” Rock’s hit credits the original Lynard Skynard band members as co-writers.

In addition to being played prior to every home University of Alabama football game, in which the home fans insert the cheer, “Roll Tide, Roll,” following the first line of the chorus, the song has finally been embraced by the state of Alabama. In 2008, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley noted that the song is the third most played song of all time about a specific destination. “Sweet Home Alabama” now is the official slogan for the tourism and marketing arm of the state and it is now read on all state license plates.

No doubt the greatest Southern Rock song of all time, Lynard Skynard’s signature song not only serves as an anthem for residents of Alabama, but it is a song that will forever be embraced by all Southerners…and if Yankee’s like it, then we guess that is okay, too. ........................................

Ohio native Daniel Emmett wrote music for minstrels and plays in the 1800s. Though he wrote countless songs, he is best remembered today for writing “Dixie.” This classic was first performed on-stage in New York City in 1859. At that time the term “Dixie” was not so closely associated with the American South. It is widely accepted that the word “Dixie” gets its origins from The Mason-Dixon Line, the line that divides Maryland and Delaware—signifying the geographical divide from Northern States and Southern States. Others believe, however, that the term “Dixie” was associated to the South due to The Bank of Louisiana’s printing of ten-dollar bills. “Dix” is French for ten, thus the word “Dixie” being used as a term to describe Southern money. Regardless to which theory one subscribes to on the origin of the word, Emmett’s song “Dixie” for the first time made the direct association between the American South and the word, “Dixie.”

There is some debate as to if Emmett was the song’s only writer. Descendents of the Snowden Family, a 19th century black band, have claimed that their ancestors had a hand in writing the song—and there is some loose evidence that Emmett based part of the song on an old black folk tune. Emmett never had a consistent story when talking about the song. He had claimed he wrote the song in a few minutes on one occasion and a few days on another. One account has him writing it on a Sunday afternoon after a flash put the idea in his head. Other accounts have him being motivated by watching out a window at a cold rainy day in the North and wishing he was “way down South in Dixie.” All of these accounts may hold as much folklore as they hold truth, Often times referred to as “Dixieland,” or “Way Down South

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In Dixie,” the song’s original title was “I Wish I Was In Dixie’s Land.” The song is credited for creating catch phrases and clichés that would forever be dotted in American vocabulary. Following the breakout of the Civil War, the song would be adapted as the unofficial anthem of the Confederate States of America, prompting both sides of the war to create countless parodies of the song. Upon hearing the news that Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox in 1865, in an effort to promote healing President Lincoln ordered his band to play “Dixie.”

Although not intended to be a folk song, “Dixie” has taken on that label over the last century—providing inspiration for countless other songs that have been major hits. One of the most notable adaptations was a composition by Mickey Newberry in 1972. He mixed “Dixie” with two other 19th century songs, “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic,” and a song closely related to black spirituals, “All My Trials.” The result, “American Trilogy,” would go on to define the live performances toward the end of Elvis Presley’s career.

Other songs that center on “Dixie’s” strong association of place include “Dixie Chicken,” and “If Heaven Ain’t A Lot like Dixie,” just to name a few. Other pop cultural references consist of the song being whistled or played in cartoons, as well as a riff from the song being converted into a car horn for the popular CBS television series The Dukes Of Hazzard.

If for no other reason Emmett’s masterpiece deserves recognition because it’s a song that sounds awesome whether it’s played fast or slow. You can clap your hands and jump for joy when it’s quick, or a tear will form when you sing the song as a ballad.

“Dixie” has made a significant transition in meaning throughout history. From its origins as a minstrel song that was sympathetic to slavery, to a song that is now an emotional song about friends and family in the South. “Dixie” was an unofficial fight song for many Southern university sports teams. Most have since scrapped the song due to its perceived political incorrectness. A few universities, including the University of Mississippi and The Citadel, have been able to latch on to the sensible understanding that the song’s current meaning of a nostalgic sense of place where family and friends enjoy good humor and lasting memories is widely-embraced. Today, no realistic person actually believes that by singing “Dixie” one is somehow being nostalgic for segregation and slavery. The song “Dixie” is proudly performed at University of Mississippi sporting events along with an adoption of Newberry’s “American Trilogy,” which the Ole Miss “Pride Of The South Band” refers to as, “From Dixie With Love.” The arrangement continues to be the most popular song in the band’s repertoire, sparking warm applause from both home and away fans. In Charleston, S.C., the Regimental Band of The Citadel (cadets from The Citadel fired the first shots of the Civil War on Jan. 9, 1861) performs “Dixie” on select occasions.

Today’s modern interpretation of “Dixie” being a song about the wonderful place in which we live and the wonderful people with whom we share it, along with the fact that the song is credited for creating the association of the word “Dixie” to the geographic region of the American South, makes “Dixie” the Greatest Southern Song!

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Welcome to a land of carousels and wooden coasters, mini-golf and pancakes. A place where the fresh mountain air is lightly scented with popcorn and cotton candy. And every day feels like that magical county fair – one that simply decided to never leave town. Welcome to Pigeon Forge – the official playground of the Great Smoky Mountains. And all the inspiration you and your family will ever need to never grow up.

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