We live in a great town - a big city with a small town feel. We have enjoyed national exposure well beyond an episode of Cops, and the eyes of the world focus on us each first Saturday in May. And while there aren't too many songs that capture the essence of the town quite like native sons Love Jones' Central Avenue, Louisville music fans are familiar with other songs that mention our fair locale.
There's Dire Straits' The Bug ("Sometimes you're the Louisville Slugger; sometimes you're the ball"), The Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers ("Well, you're sitting back in your rose pink Cadillac making bets on Kentucky Derby Day"), and even Gomez's surprising Louisville name-dropping in Charley Patton Songs comes to mind ("I been lookin' in Detroit, I been lookin' in Los Angeles, I been lookin' in Louisville. I cannot find you.") Our older citizens may recall classics like Ella Fitzgerald's Louisville K-Y and Grandpa Jones' 8 More Miles to Louisville. Well, we can add one more to that list.
Earlier this month, John Hiatt released The Open Road, another fine collection of his signature rootsy country sound featuring his formiddable lyrics. One of the songs is a rollicking little number called Haulin' about a man who has to get from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Louisville to see his lady. By the way, in case you were wondering, according to MapQuest, that's a 670-mile trip.
"So I'm haulin', haulin'
Fort Smith to Louisville
I'm gonna see my baby
See my baby with time to kill
And I'm haulin', haulin'
I'm gonna get there
Rollin' in the green grass of Kentucky
Yeah I'm gonna get there."
Maybe it's about time that Hiatt had done a song about Louisville. Born in Indianapolis, Hiatt moved to Nashville in 1970. So, he certainly knows this neck of the woods.
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Photo courtesy of: New West Records
