Song (And Bands) With States In The Titles: Part 4 Of 5

Today is the 4th in a mini-series of posts where I'm post a song (or a song by a band) with a U.S. state in its title. I've been going through the states alphabetically, ten states at a time. If you If you're just starting here, you may want to back up and catch the earlier installments. Part 1 covers the states from Alabama to Georgia – you can read it here. Part 2 spans from Hawaii to Maryland – you can read it here. Part 3 goes from Massachusetts to New Jersey – you can read it here. Today, I'll cover the next 10 states, spanning from New Mexico to South Carolina. In some cases, when I could not pick just one song (or band), I have included two (sometimes it was hard to even narrow it to two). Like each time before, I have included actual video links for each song (or band) whenever possible. Enjoy!


31)  NEW MEXICO:  Let's kick this off with a nice folksy tune by Heather Nova. It's called "Out In New Mexico"....

32)  NEW YORK:  You knew there'd be more than one of these, right?  From the hundreds of songs with New York in the title, I picked just two. First up, Billy Joel's "New York State Of Mind"...

And then – of course – Frank Sinatra's iconic rendition of "New York, New York"...

33)  NORTH CAROLINA:  Since this is my home state, I can't refrain from adding two songs here either. First up, James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind"...

Next up, a song by my favorite blues-rock band. It's Blues Traveler with "Carolina Blues"...

34)  NORTH DAKOTA:  This was a hard one. I found a band called Shallow North Dakota, but their noise-rock music was so annoying (even for me!) that I decided not to include it. Then I found this folksy number by singer/songwriter Chris Knight (never heard of him before) called simply "North Dakota," and – what do you know? – it's pretty amazing....

35)  OHIO:  So, I needed to throw in at least one band with a state in the title to make this blog post's title accurate. What I found was surprisingly good – a six-piece mostly-acoustic punk band called Defiance, Ohio, performing their song "Hair Pool"....

36)  OKLAHOMA:  You knew this one was coming, right? It's – what else? – the title song from the  Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, "Oklahoma!", as performed by The Royal National Theatre and featuring X-Men's Hugh Jackman (Wolverine)...

37)  OREGON:  Now, this is an odd collaboration. It's a song called "Portland, Oregon", performed by country music legend Loretta Lynn and modern rocker Jack White (of The White Stripes)....

38)  PENNSYLVANIA:  Okay, so this was one of the hardest states yet for which to find an appropriate song. Maybe it's because the word "Pennsylvania" is too long and clunky to fit into the lyrics of a song. And putting it as part of the name of your band won't work either, because the word "Pennsylvania" is too long to print across the front of your drum kit. Either way, this is the best I could come up with. It's a song called "You've Got A Friend In Pennsylvania" by punk-pop band New Found Glory. They don't actually mention the name of the state in the lyrics of the song itself, but the title is what is is, so there you go...

39)  RHODE ISLAND:  It's never too early for a holiday song, is it? Well, either way, this is the only song with Rhode Island in the title that I could find that wasn't riddled with explicit lyrics. It's a sweet little ditty called "Holiday In Rhode Island" by a band called The Softies....

40)  SOUTH CAROLINA:  I have friends and family in South Carolina, particularly in the Low Country area of the state. So I thought it only appropriate to cap this post off with the song "South Carolina Low Country" by country singer Josh Turner...