Songs that Depict the South

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

My old Kentucky Home. Instrumental version. Original by Stephen Foster.

Louis Armstrong Version

 

[E&Cmom]

 

[AppleDumpling]

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band/ Joan Baez

Virgil Caine is the name
And I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell
It's a time I remember, oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na”

Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
"Virgil, quick, come see,
There goes the Robert E. Lee!"
Now, I don't mind chopping wood
And I don't care if the money's no good
You take what you need
And you leave the rest
But they should never
Have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na, na, na, na...”

Like my father before me
I will work the land
And like my brother above me
Who took a rebel stand
He was just 18, proud and brave
But a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can't raise a Caine back up
When he's in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na, na, na, na...”

 

[Wendy31]

Jimmy Buffet is from Pascagoula, MS and this song very much depicts our way of life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where he grew up. Come see us sometime!

Fun Jimmy Buffet article from the Southernmiss student newspaper

http://www.studentprintz.com/jimmy-buffett-returns-to-hattiesburg-after-38-years/

Love Jimmy Buffet & the way he puts touches of the south in his songs! This is one of my new favorites that we heard for the first time as we were driving back from New Orleans to Biloxi on Mother's Day:

Love in the Library

On the corner of Government and Bay Avenue
The old doomsday fanatic wore a crown of kudzu
Sirens where wailing in the gulf coastal heat
And it seemed like the whole world was in forced retreat
I paid no attention, revolved through the door
Passed the newspaper rack on the worn marble floor
Near civil war history my heart skipped a beat
She was standing in fiction stretched high on bare feet

Love in the library, quiet and cool
Love in the library, there are no rules
Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library once upon a time

I was the pirate and she was the queen
Sir Francis and Elizabeth the best there's ever been
Then she strolled past my table and stopped at the stairs
Then sent me a smile as she reached for Flaubert

Love in the library, quiet and cool
Love in the library, there are no rules
Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library once upon a time

She gathered her books, walked while she read
Words never spoken but so much was said
You can read all you want into this rendezvous
But it's safer than most things that lovers can do
Well stories have endings and fantasies fade
The guard by the door starts drawing the shade
So write your own ending and hope they come true
For the lovers and strangers on Bay Avenue

Love in the library, quiet and cool
Love in the library, there are no rules
Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library once upon a time

To add to the OP, the group Alabama has a lot of perfect "southern" songs:

Song of the South

Song, song of the south
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Gone, gone with the wind
There ain't nobody looking back again
Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch
We all picked the cotton but we never got rich
Daddy was a veteran, a southern democrat
They oughta get a rich man to vote like that
Sing it
Song, song of the south
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Gone, gone with the wind
There ain't nobody looking back again
Well somebody told us Wall Street fell
But we were so poor that we couldn't tell
Cotton was short and the weeds were tall
But Mr. Roosevelt's a gonna save us all
Well momma got sick and daddy got down
The county got the farm and they moved to town
Pappa got a job with the TVA
He bought a washing machine and then a Chevrolet
Sing it
Song,…

 

[E&Cmom]

 

[behappy]

Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show

 

[E&Cmom]

Ole Man River- from Showboat

 

[asta]

Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home - Joe South

Chorus:
Don't it make you want to go home now
Don't it make you want to go home
All God's children get weary when they roam
Don't it make you want to go home
Don't it make you want to go home

(verse 1):
Oh the whipporwill roosts on the telephone pole
When the Georgia sun goes down
Well it's been a long time but I'm glad to say that I'm
Goin' back down to my home town
Goin' down to the Greyhound station
Gonna buy me a one way fare
Good lord willin' and the creeks don't rise
By tomorrow I'll be right there

(chorus)

(verse 2):
But there's a six-lane highway down by the creek
Where I went skinny dippin' as a child
And a drive-in show where the meadow used to grow
And the strawberries used to grow wild
There's a drag strip down by the riverside
Where my grandma's cow used to graze
Now the grass don't grow and the river don't flow
Like it did in my childhood days

 

[dotfurio]

 

[WorldWalker18]

 

[asta]

Back Down South - Kings of Leon

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

 

[LSUmiss]

I hate it. I don’t know why..just do.

Me too!

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

My old Kentucky Home. Instrumental version. Original by Stephen Foster.

Louis Armstrong Version

Still makes me cry every first Saturday in May

 

[powellrj]

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can
And when it's time for leavin'
I hope you'll understand
That I was born a ramblin' man
My father was a gambler down in Georgia
He wound up on the wrong end of a gun
And I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus
Rollin' down highway forty-one
Lord, I was born a ramblin' man
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can
And when it's time for leavin'
I hope you'll understand
That I was born a ramblin' man
I'm on my way to New Orleans this mornin'
I'm leavin' out of Nashville, Tennessee
They're always having a good time down on the bayou
Lord, them Delta women think the world of me
Lord, I was born a ramblin' man
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can
And when it's time for leavin'
I hope you'll understand
That I was born a ramblin' man
Lord, I was born a ramblin' man
Lord, I was born a ramblin' man
Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Somehow had never heard the song before watching "The Jinx"

 

[luvsJack]

Jimmy Buffet is from Pascagoula, MS and this song very much depicts our way of life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where he grew up. Come see us sometime!

Fun Jimmy Buffet article from the Southernmiss student newspaper

http://www.studentprintz.com/jimmy-buffett-returns-to-hattiesburg-after-38-years/

I didn’t know that! Wow! I knew he has a connection to MS and I knew he went to USM just didn’t realize he is from here. Learn something new everyday. I do have to say I always thought of our beautiful gulf coast with some of his music. Lol now I know why!

 

[SC Minnie]

Carolina in My Mind by James Taylor

 

[Kitty 34]

 

[Gary M]

"Ode To Billy Joe"-Bobby Gentry