40+ Songs About Tennessee

Ray has been an online music writer for over four years. Having sung in multiple competitions as a youth, he has a passion for the art.

Why is Tennessee the home of country music? Historically speaking, U.S. Congress passed a resolution in 1998 recognizing Bristol, Tennessee, as "The Birthplace of Country Music." The great state of Tennessee has always been a topic for country songwriters to explore, and that is why Tennessee has so many great country songs.

While most of these tracks refer to Tennessee, their lyrical interpretations often vary, despite the commonality of having Tennessee in the title. We've gathered the best country songs about Tennessee, including Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Alabama, and more.

No matter whether you want to remember your time in Tennessee, commemorate it, or use it in a presentation, this listening journey with songs about Tennessee will satisfy your desires!

1. “Tennessee Waltz”

Artist: Patti Page (originally by Pee Wee King)

Album: Tennessee Waltz

Year Released: 1950

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Tennessee Waltz”

• “Tennessee Waltz” is one of the best country songs about Tennessee written by Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart as they were headed to Nashville, Tennessee, riding in a truck.
• Redd Stewart wrote the lyrics and Pee Wee King composed the music for “Tennessee Waltz,” first released in 1948.
• The lyrics of “Tennessee Waltz” depict a story of a person who introduces their sweetheart to a friend who then waltzes away with them. Depending on the singer’s gender, the lyrics are read differently.
• Patti Page recorded the track for Mercury Records as the B-side for “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.”
• During home games at Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, the University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Band performs “Tennessee Waltz.”

2. “My Tennessee Mountain Home”

Artist: Dolly Parton

Album: My Tennessee Mountain Home

Year Released: 1973

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “My Tennessee Mountain Home”

• The song “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” composed by Parton, has become a theme song for Dollywood.
• The song served as the centerpiece of Parton’s 1973 concept album My Tennessee Mountain Home, with imagery from her rural childhood in Tennessee.
• It describes Tennessee’s nature and how peaceful it is. Also, it is one of the most popular Dolly Parton songs about the Tennessee mountains.
• For her live album Heartsongs, Dolly Parton re-recorded the song in 1994.

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3. “Rocky Top”

Artist: Osborne Brothers

Album: Yesterday, Today, and the Osborne Brothers

Year Released: 1967

Genre: Bluegrass, Country Music

Facts About “Rocky Top”

• In 1967, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant composed the lyrics of “Rocky Top” for the Osborne Brothers, who recorded it later that year.
• “Rocky Top” is one of the best country songs about Tennessee girls and mountains.
• Rocky Top is one of three peaks that comprise Thunderhead Mountain, located in the Great Smoky Mountains, but it is situated fictionally in the song.
• This bluegrass tune relates the story of a country boy who moves to the city and longs to return to Rocky Top, Tennessee, where the women are wild, and the air is fresh.
• One of Tennessee’s ten official state songs laments the loss of a more straightforward and more complimentary existence in the hills of Tennessee.
• The Pride of the Southland Band has played a marching band version of the song at athletic events for the University of Tennessee (UT).

4. “Dixieland Delight”

Artist: Alabama

Album: The Closer You Get

Year Released: 1983

Genre: Country Song

Facts About “Dixieland Delight”

• Ronnie Rogers wrote “Dixieland Delight,” and Alabama recorded it in 1959.
• In the title of the song, the singer refers to his girlfriend.
• “Dixieland Delight” became Alabama’s ninth number-one song on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Singles chart after being released in January 1983.
• It is one of the best songs about Tennessee football, perhaps because it is popular at Alabama’s home games.
• Until this day, “Dixieland Delight” has been one of the band’s most popular songs.
• Despite being a song about Tennessee, the music has become a battle cry for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide at home football games.

5. “Tennessee Rose”

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Album: Cimarron

Year Released: 1982

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Tennessee Rose”

• Emmylou Harris recorded “Tennessee Rose,” a song written by Karen Brooks and Hank DeVito.
• This song ranked number 9 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
• Emmylou’s performance of “Tennessee Rose” really reveals the haunting quality of her voice.

6. “Crazy Town”

Artist: Jason Aldean

Album: Wide Open

Year Released: 2010

Genre: Country-Rock Music

Facts About “Crazy Town”

• Brett Jones and Rodney Clawson wrote, “Crazy Town” for American country music artist Jason Aldean.
• On March 30, 2010, Jason Aldean released his fourth and final single from his 2009 album Wide Open, “Crazy Town.”
• “Crazy Town” is one of the best country songs about Nashville, Tennessee.
• Making it as a Nashville singer is the theme of this song.
• The song is the narrator’s description of Nashville as a “crazy town.”

7. “Tennessee River”

Artist: Alabama

Album: My Home’s in Alabama

Year Released: 1980

Genre: Country Song, Country-Rock, Bluegrass Songs

Facts About “Tennessee River”

• Randy Owen wrote “Tennessee River,” which was recorded by Alabama, where Owen is the lead vocalist.
• In March 1980, Alabama signed with RCA Nashville and released their first single.
• Country singer Darryl Worley, a native of Savannah, Tennessee, sang a song about the Tennessee River for his 2002 single “Tennessee River Run.”
• This track talks about going back home, where life is more straightforward and peace and love are still found.

8.“Smoky Mountain Rain”

Artist: Ronnie Milsap

Album: Greatest Hits

Year Released: 1980

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Smoky Mountain Rain”

• Ronnie Milsap recorded Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan’s song “Smoky Mountain Rain.”
• It is one of the known songs about Knoxville, Tennessee, or East Tennessee and was Milsap’s 16th #1 hit on the Hot Country Single chart on Billboard.
• “Smoky Mountain Rain” is a track about a man who left Los Angeles and returned to East Tennessee to find the woman he loves.
• As a result of a vote by the Tennessee General Assembly on June 3, 2010, “Smoky Mountain Rain” became Tennessee’s eighth state song.

9. “Tennessee Homesick Blues”

Artist: Dolly Parton

Album: Rhinestone

Year Released: 1984

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Tennessee Homesick Blues”

• In 1984, the soundtrack of the film Rhinestone featured “Tennessee Homesick Blues,” a song written and recorded by Dolly Parton.
• “Tennessee Homesick Blues” gave Parton her 10th Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
• In 1984, Parton wrote this song about a young woman who went to New York to pursue her dreams. She misses her hometown Tennessee, where life was simple but beautiful. That’s what makes her miss her hometown the most.

10. “Back to Tennessee”

Artist: Billy Ray Cyrus

Album: Back to Tennessee

Year Released: 2009

Genre: Country Rock Music

Facts About “Back to Tennessee”

• American singer-songwriter and actor Billy Ray Cyrus sang the country-rock song “Back to Tennessee.”
• This song talks about whatever life may bring, and there is always a place that you can genuinely call home no matter where it may take you.
• Cyrus co-wrote the song with Matthew Wilder and Tamara Dunn.
• The song appears prominently in Hannah Montana: The Movie.
• The song topped the Hot Country Songs Chart in the same week Miley entered the listing with “The Climb.”

11. “Tennessee Stud”

Artist: Johnny Cash originally by Jimmy Driftwood

Album: Back In Black

Year Released: 1994

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Tennessee Stud”

• In 1959, Jimmy Driftwood recorded and released “Tennessee Stud.”
• Despite its traditional flavor, “Tennessee Stud” still has a place globally. Several artists have covered the song, especially in the country genre. Hank Williams Jr. recorded a version in 1981; Kingsland native Johnny Cash recorded a version in 1994.
• A horse named Tennessee Stud is the subject of the song. In it, the speaker rides away on the horse because he is having problems with his girlfriend’s father.

12. “Back Where I Come From”

Artist: Kenny Chesney, originally Mac McAnally

Album: Simple Life

Year Released: 1990

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Back Where I Come From”

• Mac McAnally recorded “Back Where I Come From” before Kenny Chesney. The song was first recorded by Chesney in 1990.
• In 1996, Kenny Chesney recorded “Back Where I Come From” for his album Me and You, produced by Barry Beckett.
• According to Kenny, he wrote “Back Where I Come From” about where he grew up.
• In “Back Where I Come From,” the songsters express their love for the place where they grew up, remembering the memories, unique locations, and moments that shaped their childhood and youth.

13.“My Homeland, Tennessee”

Artist: Roy Lamont Smith and Neil Grayson Taylor

Album: N/A

Year Released: 1925

Genre: Great State Song

Facts About “My Homeland, Tennessee”

• In 1969, Roy Lamont Smith and Nell Grayson Taylor composed “My Homeland, Tennessee,” the first of Tennessee’s ten official state songs.
• Tennessee commissioned “My Homeland, Tennessee” to create a patriotic state song as part of a contest.
• The song describes the beauty of Tennessee’s “smiling valleys” and “purple hills.”

14. “Maybe It Was Memphis”

Artist: Pam Tillis

Album: Put Yourself in My Place

Year Released: 1991

Genre: Country Music

Facts About “Maybe It Was Memphis”

• In this mid-tempo ballad, the female narrator recalls her former lover, who she met in Memphis, Tennessee.
• Romantic magic is evident in this song. First love is the subject of this song, and the singer remembers her first love.
• Michael Anderson wrote this song for Pam Tillis.

15. “Walking in Memphis”

Artist: Marc Cohn

Album: Marc Cohn

Year Released: 1991

Genre: Soft Rock Music

Facts About “Walking in Memphis”

• “Walking in Memphis” is one of the best rock songs about Tennessee. At the 34th Grammy Awards in 1992, Cohn received a nomination for Song of the Year, the same year; he won the Grammy for Best New Artist.
• American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn composed and recorded “Walking in Memphis,” his signature song.
• Marc Cohn’s 1991 release of this song became one of the greatest rock tribute songs.
• After a 1985 trip to Memphis, Tennessee, Marc Cohn began writing the song.
• “Walking in Memphis” peaked at #13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1991, becoming Cohn’s only Top 40 hit.

More Songs About Tennessee

Which of the best country and rock songs about Tennessee did you enjoy the most? Feel free to add a piece of good music with Tennessee in the title if you think it’s missing from our list.

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This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2021 Ray