The 30 or so Greatest Southern Songs (cont.)

20. My Old Kentucky Home

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 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.

19. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man

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.

18. Rocky Top

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 well-remembered 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!”

17. Chattahoochee

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.