Need songs from several American states

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: kinderfolk
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 04:39 PM

Dear Ebbie, anyone who likes the poetry of Robert W. Service can never forget Alaska. Thank you.

Dear Art, that will be of tremendous help. Thank you very much; some of those are my favorites.

Thank you to everyone else, too. I have more than enough material to work with now.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 03:16 PM

Alaska: No One Thinks of Us

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: _gargoyle
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 01:31 PM

Not music....but "State Slogans for the new melenium"....recieved this morning from a school teacher.

Alabama: Yes, we have electricity

Arizona: But It's a Dry Heat

Arkansas: Litterasy Ain't Everthing

California: As Seen on TV

Colorado: If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother

Connecticut: Like Massachusetts, Only Dirtier and With Less Character

Delaware: We Really Do Like the Chemicals in our Water

Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids

Georgia: We Put the "Fun" in Fundamentalist Extremism

Hawaii: Haka Tike Mow Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death to Mainland Scum, But Leave Your Money)

Idaho: Potatoes and NeoNazi's...What More Could You Ask For? (OR, "Tater Skinheads")

Illinois: Please Don't Pronounce the "S"

Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free

Iowa: We Do Amazing Things With Corn

Kansas: Where Science Don't Mean Shit!

Kentucky: Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names

Louisiana: We're Not All Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign

Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster

Maryland: A Thinking Man's Delaware

Massachusetts: Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's (For Most Tax Brackets)

Michigan: First Line of Defense From the Canadians

Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes and 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes

Mississippi: Come Feel Better About Your Own State

Missouri: Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars at Work

Montana: Land of the Big Sky, the Unabomber, Right-wing Crazies, and Very Little Else

Nebraska: Ask About Our State Motto Contest

Nevada: Whores and Poker!

New Hampshire: Go Away and Leave Us Alone

New Jersey: You Want a Fucking Motto? I Got Yer Fucking Motto Right Here!

New Mexico: Lizards Make Excellent Pets

New York: You Have the Right to Remain Silent, You Have the Right to an Attorney...

North Carolina: Tobacco is a Vegetable

North Dakota: We Really are One of the 50 States!

Ohio: At Least We're Not Michigan

Oklahoma: Like the Play, only No Singing

Oregon: Spotted Owl...It's What's For Dinner!

Pennsylvania: Cook With Coal

Rhode Island: We're Not REALLY An Island

South Carolina: Remember the Civil War? We Didn't Actually Surrender.

South Dakota: Closer Than North Dakota

Tennessee: The Educashun State

Texas: Si' Hablo Ing'les (Yes, I speak English)

Utah: Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus

Vermont: Yep

Virginia: Who Says Government Stiffs and Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?

Washington: Help! We're Overrun By Nerds and Slackers!

Washington, DC: Wanna Be Mayor?

West Virginia: One Big Happy Family. Really!

Wisconsin: Come Cut Our Cheese

Wyoming: Where Men Are Men and Sheep Are Nervous

Subject: Lyr Add: Minnesota^^
From: emily rain
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 12:01 PM

do parodies count?

MINNESOTA (to the tune of "Oklahoma")
From the Prairie Home Companion Songbook

Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin-
Neesota vere da snoose flies ticker dan da snow
Vere behind each veed you find a Svede
And da vinter's forty-two below (dat's cold)

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh
By yimminy da fish yump right into your boat
And mosquitos grow as big as crows
From Mankato vay up to Dulut!

You can have your Vermonts and your Maines
Ve get ten-tousand lakes ven it rains

If you want re-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ec-
Reation take your ne-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ext
Vacation to da beautiful land, Minnesota,
Minnesota... ya sure.

[transcribed phonetically. remember to say your o's really really round and roll your r's a tiny bit. : ) ]

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 10:50 AM

To Art Thieme's list I would add

Colorado -- The Colorado Trail

Texas -- Old Chisholm Trail ("With a ten dollar horse and a forty dollar saddle/I'm goin' to Texas to punch them cattle")

New Mexico -- The Buffalo Skinners

California -- Days of '49 and The Banks of the Sacramento

T.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 10:45 AM

Arizona

Billy The Kid
Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie
Billy Vanero

Idaho

We're Coming Idaho

Minnesota

Pokrgama Bear
Lost Jimmy Whalen (some versions)
Jam At Gerry's Rocks (some versions)

New Mexico

Dobe Bill (The Killer)
The Ox Driver's Song
The Trail To Mexico

Oregon

Portland County Jail
Roll On Columbia (and any of the songs Woody Guthrie Wrote about the area for the Bonneville Power Administration)
The Big Combine

Rhode Island

In The Good Old Colony Days
Butternut Hill (and versions)

South Dakota

I'm A Swede From Soth Dakota
The Sioux Indians
My Name Is Yon Yonson
The Old Woman Who Loved A Swine
The Old Sow Took The Measils And She Died In The Spring
Second Week Of Deer Camp

Hope this helps you some.

Art

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: bunkerhill
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 08:46 AM

There ought to be a lot of songs about Rhode Island: celebrations of moonlight on Narragansett Bay; work songs for the bullrakers (clamdiggers) or from the glory days of the Blackstone Canals; spooky Halloween songs about Poe and H.P. Lovecraft prowling around College Hill; an ode to the Jonnycake (or a modern toast to the joys of coffee milk); something eight-to-the-bar for Providence, which was a great blues town before its recent "renaissance." Freedom lovers would have written something about Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson or William Blackstone, or the Rev. War "Battle of Rhode Island," where a unit of freed black men chased the Brits back to Newport. A bite of a crisp apple plucked from a tree in Pascoag or Burrillville must have inspired someone to write a song. Alas, as much as I appreciate "the biggest little," can't think of any traditional songs that really say Rhode Island (or even Row Dialin'). Pendragon, one of the state's top traditional music groups, performs some fiddle tunes that come out of the old textile mill towns, but I don't think that would help.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: lamarca
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 04:54 PM

Peter Berryman and Lou Berryman are two wonderful singer/songwriters from Madison, Wisconsin. They write mostly humorous songs, although they sneak in a few serious messages in some of them (see the words to "When Did We Have Sauerkraut?" for a good example).

Here's a list of their songs in the Digital Tradition database; their generic State Song is YOUR STATE'S NAME HERE.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: kinderfolk
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 12:13 PM

I had forgotten about Pokegama Bear. Thank you.

Please, Midchuck, what is Berryman's?

Wolfgang, thank you.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: jeffp
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 10:49 AM

The Pokegama Bear, which is in the DT, takes place in Minnesota, on the shore of Pokegama Lake, where my mother-in-law grew up. I played that for my in-laws on New Year's Day with the whole family singing along. Great fun all around!

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: Wolfgang
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 10:36 AM

Well, you can enter the state names into the search box (upper right) and you find lots of songs with the state names in them (or in the notes to the songs, like 'collected in ...). This way I found "Way out in Idaho" but I haven't tried the other names.
As for the poly-state song, go here.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: Danlbear
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 10:24 AM

kinderfolk:

Have you tried some of the older grade school songbooks?? They are a really good source.

Dan

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 10:16 AM

If you get in real trouble, use the Berrymans' Your State's Name Here.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: kinderfolk
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 10:10 AM

????

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 09:58 AM

There is that poly-state song, "What did Della wear/she wore her New Jersey, etc." which includes Idaho and Oregon.

T.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: kinderfolk
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 09:52 AM

Thank you. That will be helpful, but I was hoping for something other than "official" songs.

Subject: RE: Need songs from several American states
From: Cookie
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 05:24 AM

This might be some help: http://www.50states.com/songs/

Subject: Need songs from several American states
From: kinderfolk
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 06:48 PM

I need one or two folksongs which are indigenous to the American states listed below, suitable for grade school aged children. Any help you can give will be most gratefully received. Thank you.

Arizona
Idaho
Minnesota
New Mexico
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Dakota