“Break the Deal” by Maggie Cox. (Released October 29, 2021.) Columbia, Adair County’s Maggie Cox began singing in church at seven, playing guitar at nine, and writing her own songs at fourteen. “A few years ago, I just sat down at the piano and started writing on my closet with a Sharpie,” the then-seventeen-year-old senior told the County Line in 2022—“and I’ve been writing songs ever since.”

“100,000 Women Can’t be Wrong” by Lattie Moore. (Released 1956.) As a teenager, Lattie Moore (1924–2010) ran the projector at the movie theater in Scottsville, Allen County. By thirty, thanks in part to his 1952 hit “Juke Joint Johnny,” he was a rockabilly playboy with a nightly gig in Indianapolis. “You don’t like my lovin’ or my turtledovin’,” he brags on a 1956 track, “but 100,000 women can’t be wrong.”

“River that Speaks” by Fred Keams and Seth Murphy. (Released April 26, 2023.) A Harrodsburg resident who lived nearly twenty years in Lawrenceburg, Anderson County, Fred Nez-Keams is a Native American flute maker born from the Red Bottom Charcoal People. “My grandfather is the One who Walks Around; my maternal grandfather is the Red Bottom Water.” He performs traditional and original compositions.

“Kentucky, 1988” by Kelsey Waldon. (Released October 3, 2019.) At twelve, Kelsey Waldon got a job stacking tobacco in the river bottoms of Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ballard County. Each evening, sun blisters dotted her ears—an experience she recounts on “Kentucky, 1988,” a tribute to her origin. “This is my DNA / I wouldn’t have it any other way / When things got rough we did not complain / Kentucky, 1988.”

“Bowling Green” by the New Lost City Ramblers and Cousin Emmy. (Recorded 1968.) Innovative hillbilly musician Cousin Emmy (1903–80) grew up in Lamb, Barren County. “Bowling Green” was originally a fiddle tune when she added floating lyrics and a chorus. In a 1966 TV appearance, she performed “You Are My Sunshine” with Pete Seeger by letting the air out of an inflated rubber glove in the key of G.

“Sugar Hill” by “Dad” Crockett. (Recorded August 9, 1929.) West Virginia’s “Dad” Crockett (1877–1972) moved to Bath County, Kentucky, and formed a band with his children before the family relocated to Fresno, California. ““Dad” Crockett, patriarch of the Crockett Mountaineers,” a 1930 plug in the Cincinnati Enquirer reads, “picks up his banjo and harmonizes on “Sugar Hill,” long a classic of the hills.”

“Run Rufus Run” by Dale Ann Bradley. (Released October 10, 2006.) Performed by Calvin, Bell County, native Dale Ann Bradley, “Run Rufus Run” follows a twelve-year-old Bell Countian whose father, a coal miner ailing from black lung, puts him to work running moonshine to Harlan. A trigger-happy law enforcement agent—picture Timothy Olyphant’s character in the TV show Justified—gives chase.

“The Sheriff of Boone County” by Kenny Price. (Released 1970.) Boone County farm boy Kenny Price (1931–87) satirizes the sheriff as a petty tyrant parked in a speed trap on I-75. “If you’re tryin’ to push your Caddy from Nashville to Cincinnati / You have to come across the Boone County line / As you’re drivin’ through you better mind your P’s and Q’s / ’Cause this here stretch of interstate, boy, is MINE!”

“Bangum and the Boar” by Logan English. (Released 1957.) Folk singer and Georgetown College alum Logan English (1928–83) grew up on a farm in Shawhan, Bourbon County. In 1957, he recorded Kentucky Folk Songs and Ballads, most of which farm tenants from the Appalachian Mountains had brought to the Bluegrass. He learned “Bangum and the Boar” at an ice cream supper at Shawhan’s Presbyterian Church.

“Why Not Me” by the Judds. (Released September 1984.) At twelve, Wynonna Judd—an Ashland, Boyd County, native raised in LA—returned to Kentucky with her mother, Naomi. Living in rural poverty, without a phone or a TV, Wynonna turned to guitar, laying the base for country music’s greatest mother-daughter duo of all time. “Your Kentucky girl’s been waiting patiently,” she sings on “Why Not Me.”

“How Excellent is Thy Name” by Larnelle Harris. (Released 1985.) Raised at 229 Randolph Hill on Clarks Run in Danville, Boyle County, Larnelle Harris began singing in his church at six then became the president of Danville High School Choir. In February 1986, his family threw a party celebrating his two latest Grammys—including one, the Best Gospel Performance (Male), for “How Excellent is Thy Name.”

“Bracken County Breakdown” by Jeff Murray. (Released April 15, 1992.) In 1981, Brooksville, Bracken County, eleven-year-old Jeff Murray watched Mike Feagan play the banjo and was instantly rapt. That Christmas, he got a five-string. He went on to be a professional musician before joining the Marines. “Bracken County Breakdown” was composed by the Kentuckian who first inspired him, Mike Feagan.

“Ol’ Dood (Part II)” by Sturgill Simpson. (Released August 20, 2021.) Jackson, Breathitt County’s Sturgill Simpson is the first male on his mother’s side not to work in a mine. Set in Eastern Kentucky in 1862, his album The Ballad of Dood and Juanita follows a homesteader named Dood—“son of a mountain miner and a Shawnee maid”—on his quest to save his love Juanita from her outlaw captor Seamus McClure.

“Locust Hill Rag” by Jenks “Tex” Carman. (Released 1953.) Born to farmer Alford Carman in Locust Hill, Breckinridge County, Jenkins Carman (1903–68) was a California-based radio star who combined western showmanship with staccato vocals and Hawaiian steel guitar. “Went down in old Kentucky, down to Locust Hill,” he sings on “Locust Hill Rag.” “Sweet little Cherokee maiden waiting o’er the hill.”

“Curves” by the Shane Dawson Band. (Released August 6, 2021.) As a teen, Mount Washington, Bullitt County, country singer Shane Dawson played on quarter beer nights at Phoenix Hill Tavern. Then, at nineteen, to pay the bills, he started plumbing. But his day job at Louisville Plumbing Co. hasn’t stopped his music: his coworkers say he’ll finish a set at 4 a.m., crash, then arrive first to work in the morning.

“Quiet Magazine” by 00 the Rabbit. (Released August 4, 2010.) A longtime performer at Tidball’s in Bowling Green, the alternative pop act 00 the Rabbit is the project of Morgantown, Butler County, native Russell Brooks, who now does voiceovers and background music for commercials. “Quiet Magazine” is “about doing whatever you can to show your dedication,” Brooks told the Frazier.

“The Ali Shuffle” by Malachi Thompson. (Released 2000.) In 1989, doctors diagnosed Princeton, Caldwell County, experimental jazz artist Malachi Thompson (1949–2006) with T-cell lymphoma and gave him a year to live. His defiance toward that prognosis is apparent on 2000’s “The Ali Shuffle,” a nod to the footwork of the wiliest, most threat-resistant Kentuckian of all time: boxer Muhammad Ali.

“Paradise” by Jackie DeShannon. (Released 1972.) On her rendition of the John Prine–penned “Paradise,” Hazel, Calloway County, native Jackie DeShannon laments what Peabody Energy’s strip mining operation has done to a once-lush town on the Green River in Muhlenberg County. “They tortured the timber and stripped all the land . . . And wrote it all down as the progress of Man.”

“Casey Jones Special” by Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy. (Released 1930.) In “Casey Jones Special,” Andy Kirk (1898–1992), a big band orchestra leader from Newport, Campbell County, honors railroad conductor Casey Jones, who miraculously saved all his passengers in the 1900 collision that killed him. Jones’s birthplace [Cayce, Fulton County] is cattycorner from Kirk’s on a map of Kentucky.

“Can’t Put It Back” by Scout Larken. (Released September 27, 2006.) Raised on a farm in the flatland of Cunningham, Carlisle County, West Kentucky, Scout Larken is nevertheless passionate about stopping mountaintop removal in Eastern Kentucky. “They say Hey, we’re gonna put it back just like we found it!,” she sings skeptically on “Can’t Put it Back.” “They take away the beauty and they leave an open sore.”

“Sweet Tea (Bring Me Home)” by Kiana & the Sun Kings. (Released May 8, 2022.) On the ode to her mother “Sweet Tea (Bring Me Home”), Kiana Del recalls growing up in the Second Baptist Church of Carrollton, Carroll County—gospel music filling the air, her mother’s sanguine voice, the smell of a lilac bush in the summer, the symphony of galaxies within her—where, at age four, she debuted as a singer.

“Trip to Hyden” by Tom T. Hall. (Released 1971.) On December 30, 1970, thirty-nine miners died in an explosion in the Hurricane Creek mine near Hyden, Leslie County. Months later, Tick Ridge, Carter County, country singer Tom T. Hall (1936–2021) bore witness to the aftermath. “Just another country hillside with some mud holes and some junk / The mines were deadly silent like a rat hole in the wall.”

“Don’t Believe” by the Psychedelic Furs. (Released July 31, 2020.) On January 4, 2007, Tim Butler, the English bassist who co-founded the Psychedelic Furs, DM’d his band’s superfan Robyn Wesley on MySpace. In 2008, the two married and settled on Beldon Avenue in the bride’s hometown: Liberty, Casey County. “Don’t Believe” is a Furs track the adoptive Kentuckian co-wrote and played bass on.

“E Lucevan le Stelle” by Riccardo Martin. (Released February 25, 1910.) Raised in Hopkinsville, Christian County, before moving to Nashville as a teenager, tenor Hugh Whitfield Martin (1874–1952) was by 1905 performing in Europe as “Riccardo Martin,” as his Italian management had rechristened him. A romantic aria from Puccini’s 1900 opera Tosca, “E Lucevan le Stelle” is sung by a painter awaiting his execution.

“Hot Corn” by Martin & Roberts. (Recorded 1931–34.) After meeting at a fiddling contest in Winchester, Clark County, guitarist Asa Martin—a Louisville medical school dropout—and fiddler Doc Roberts teamed up to record from 1927 to 1934. As a boy in Winchester, Martin had learned “Hot Corn”—a Civil War–era ditty about moonshine—from his mother. “Hot corn, cold corn, bring along the demi-john!”

“The Death of Harry Simms” by Aunt Molly Jackson. (Released 1961.) Born in Clay County, Aunt Molly Jackson (1880–1960) was a ballad singer, a midwife, and a labor leader who drew the ire of coal operators, who beat and teargassed her. On “The Death of Harry Simms,” she memorializes the young National Miners Union organizer whom a sheriff’s deputy killed in Barbourville, Knox County, in 1932.

“Take Me Back” by Darrell Speck. (Recorded 1959.) In 1947, nine-year-old Albany, Clinton County, resident Darrell Speck (1938–2003) told his mother Dimple he wanted to learn guitar. So she taught him chords—and soon, he was performing everywhere, including the town square. After a stint in the Navy, Darrell went on to hold a variety of jobs: rockabilly singer, disc jockey, and Clinton County coroner.

“Become Someone Else” by Cade Crider. (Released October 31, 2023.) A seventeen-year-old senior at Usque Ad Civitas Academy in Marion, Crittenden County, Cade Crider is a chess champion: in 2022, he won the US Chess Federation scholastic tournament’s Kentucky Quad A, one of four regions in the state. He’s also a skilled rock guitarist and vocalist—who does an eerily accurate Kurt Cobain impression.

“Nowhere” by 4forty9. (Released September 9, 2012.) Burkesville, Cumberland County, rock band 4forty9 takes its name from Highway 449, site of their practice sessions. The music video for “Nowhere” follows a young Burkesville Pool & Lunchroom waitress who—fed up with grabby customers and tip-stealing coworkers—rage-quits, chucks her uniform in a dumpster, and hitchhikes out of Burkesville.

“Daviss Co Tractor Massacre” by Nine Pound Hammer. (Released October 1, 2021.) Nine Pound Hammer is a cowpunk band formed in 1985 in Owensboro, Daviess County. The accidentally misspelled “Daviss Co Tractor Massacre” commemorates an incident from around 1984: for the amusement of 500 kids partying in a field in Brown’s Valley, Rudy Yeagle crushed fifteen cars with a John Deere tractor.

“When We All Get to Heaven” by Jeff Stice. (Released June 1, 1990.) Brownsville, Edmonson County’s Jeff “Mr. Piano Man” Stice (1960–2021) graduated Edmonson County High School in 1978, studied piano at WKU, then embarked on a prolific gospel music career. A devout member of Brownsville Missionary Baptist Church, he was in 2007 named Musician of the Year by the Southern Gospel Music Guild.

“Hardened Company” by Leah Blevins. (Released May 25, 2018.) Sandy Hook, Elliott County, native Leah Blevins comes from a musical family: although her parents were a dentist and a phlebotomist, her aunts, uncles, and grandparents toured Appalachia performing gospel. Her Papaw taught her to harmonize, helping shape the abilities of one of the most expressive vocalists in country music.

“Country” by Senora May. (Released September 8, 2018.) Senora May grew up on an Estill County farm “building fairy houses, making mud pies, [and] catching snakes” before majoring in ecological architecture at Berea College, she told the LEO in 2022. On “Country,” she decries the coal industry’s impact on that same Kentucky biosphere: “You can kiss goodbye catalpa / earth and mealworms, too.”

“Oleika Sunset” by RYVOLI. (Released January 28, 2022.) Indie-folk duo RYVOLI is named for Paris’s Rue de Rivoli, where members Jenn Whiteman and Sam Ayres first collaborated. Later, the two reunited in Lexington, Fayette County, and became house painters. “Oleika Sunset” alludes to the Oleika Shriners Temple on Southland Drive, visible from the Good Foods Co-op parking lot Ayres used to frequent.

“June Barcarolle” by Herman Chittison. (Recorded c. 1945.) In 1912–13, as a four-year-old in Flemingsburg, Fleming County, Herman Chittison (1908–67) started playing piano with one finger. By the late 1910s, he was performing hymns at Strawberry Methodist Church. On March 15, 1939, while living in Egypt, he played piano at the royal wedding of the Prince of Iran and the Princess of Egypt in Cairo.

“Floyd County All Star” by Nicholas Jamerson. (Released April 13, 2019.) By returning six punts for touchdowns in 2002, Prestonsburg Blackcats receiver Nick Jamerson of Floyd County tied a Kentucky high school football record. On the title track of Floyd County All Star, which he calls “a love letter to Floyd County,” he recalls facing off against the rival Betsy Layne Bobcats and Martin Purple Flash.

“No Parking on the Dance Floor” by Midnight Star. (Released 1983.) When techno-funk octet Midnight Star formed in 1976, most of its members—including Louisvillians Reggie and Vincent Calloway and Belinda Lipscomb—were studying music at KSU in Frankfort, Franklin County. But they dropped out in 1977, moved to LA, and became pioneers in their genre, mixing soul and disco with vocoder vocals.

“Tender Kind” by S.G. Goodman. (Released July 17, 2020.) Raised in Hickman, Fulton County, S.G. Goodman grew up singing in church, working in sweet corn, and gigging for gar in the Bayou de Chien behind her family’s farm. “Come June we’ll take a ride around the hidden backroads of this country town,” she sings on “Tender Kind.” “And sit in the dark of this bottom land / Oh, hand in my hand.”

“Peg Pants” by Bill Beach. (Recorded June 1956.) Following a stint in Korea with the US Marine Corps and an honorable discharge in 1955, Glencoe, Gallatin County, native Bill Beach settled in Cincinnati, where he recorded rockabilly tunes like “Peg Pants” for King Records. From the 1960s to the 2000s, having left the music business, he operated a sewing machine and vacuum repair shop in Newport.

“Some Little Bug is Going to Find You” by Bradley Kincaid. (Recorded September 14, 1933.) When Point Leavell, Garrard County’s Bradley Kincaid (1895–1989) read the neurotic lyrics to the 1910s black comedy ballad “Some Little Bug is Going to Find You,” he composed a melody. “Eating lobster cooked or plain is only flirting with ptomaine . . . Eating juicy sliced pineapple makes a sexton dust a chapel.”

“Tally Ho!” by Blanche Coldiron. (Released 1999.) Dubbed “Blanche the Mountain Girl,” clawhammer banjoist Blanche Coldiron (1922–2005) traveled Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s and `40s performing at schoolhouses; then she retired to care for her sick daughter. After a fifty-year hiatus, the Dry Ridge, Grant County, resident recorded several songs for the 1999 compilation Kentucky Old-Time Banjo.

“Steal your Dad” by Dallas Remington. (Released September 23, 2022.) A fifth-generation farm kid from Mayfield, Graves County, country musician Dallas Remington has many hobbies, like yoga, hunting, and four-wheeling. But on “Steal your Dad,” the moxy and confidence she exudes—“You stole my man so I’m’a steal your dad”—probably has more to do with the black belt she’s earned in Tae Kwon Do.

“My Boy” by Elvie Shane. (Released September 21, 2020.) Country artist Elvie Shane grew up singing in church in Caneyville, Grayson County. “This is good, hard-working, hard-nosed, blue-collar American people in this town,” he said at a Caneyville performance in 2021—“and I was raised by all of them.” As of 2024, his song about a stepfather’s love, “My Boy,” has been streamed 60 million times on Spotify.

“Etude in E Minor, Op. 6, No. 17” by Nelson Amos. (Released August 15, 2008.) In the late 1950s, Greensburg, Green County, native Nelson Amos studied art at Morehead State University. Since 1975, he’s taught classical guitar, lute, and music history classes at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. “Etude in E Minor, Op. 6, No. 17” was composed in 1815 by the Spanish classical guitarist Fernando Sor.

“You Gotta Have a Duck Tail” by Billy Adams and the Rock-a-Teers. (Released 1958.) In 1948, eight-year-old Billy Adams (1940–2019) came to Greenup County where his father took up sharecropping to support his fourteen kids. Inspired by hillbilly music they heard on a battery-powered radio, Billy and his brother banged rhythms on lard bucket lids until eventually a friend loaned them a Harmony guitar.

“Comeback” by Ssion. (Released November 20, 2017.) In 1998, Lewisport, Hancock County’s Cody Critcheloe, the child of a draftsman and a paper mill maintenance manager, became the first visual arts student from Hancock County High School to attend the Governor’s School for the Arts. Now a prolific artist, he makes multimedia alt-pop and queercore music under the name Ssion (pronounced “Shun”).

“Christmas Island” by Ginger, Jean, and Dolores Dinning with Bob Atcher. (Released 1950.) Known as “the Dean of Cowboy Singers,” Bob Atcher (1914–93) was raised at 1010 Elm Street in West Point, Hardin County. His US Army service during World War II lends credibility to his vocal performance on the Dinning sisters’ rendition of a 1946 hit: “How’d you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island?”

“Future Street” by Martha Redbone. (Released 2004.) “My family . . . has been in Harlan County since the beginning of time,” Martha Redbone, a roots musician from Lynch, Harlan County, told the Lexington Herald-Leader in 2018. “Everyone has come from everywhere to feed their families in those hills and those mountains. There are Irish people, Portuguese people, [and] lots of African American people.”

“Never Swat a Fly” by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. (Recorded April 11, 1930.) After serving in the US Army during WWI then playing drums in a circus band, Cynthiana, Harrison County, native Bill McKinney (1895–1969) led McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in the Greystone Ballroom in Detroit from the 1920s to the `40s. The comedic group became one of the first African American bands to play on national radio.

“Streets of My Hometown” by Ned Hill. (Released March 9, 2018.) Americana musician Ned Hill played basketball at Caverna High School (class of 1977) in Horse Cave, Hart County, before relocating to Nashville in 1998. “Streets of My Hometown” waxes nostalgic about the Horse Cave of the 1960s and `70s, before “Sam Walton banged his drum” and big box stores impacted the fabric of the small town.

“Methodist Pie” by Grandpa Jones. (Released 1964.) Born in Niagara, Henderson County, clawhammer banjoist Louis “Grandpa” Jones (1913–98) enjoyed a seventy-year career performing on radio and TV. In the early 1960s, he recorded “Methodist Pie,” a comedy song a man once wrote after going to Camp Nelson in Jessamine County to hear circuit rider preachers at old-fashioned Methodist camp meetings.

“Jail House Blues” by Whistler & his Jug Band. (Recorded September 25, 1924.) In 1915, Eminence, Henry County, musician and nose-whistler Buford “Whistler” Threlkeld (1893–1935) was sentenced in Henry Circuit Court to one to two years in the penitentiary for stealing a reel of rubber hose. In 1924, he performed the guitar and vocals on one of the world’s first jug band recordings, “Jail House Blues.”

“Product of a Working Man” by Dewayne House. (Released May 19, 2020.) Clinton, Hickman County’s Dewayne House has held many jobs—including farmer, fisherman, plumber, and roofer. His debut country single “Product of a Working Man,” which entered rotation on Paducah radio station WKYQ’s Outlaw Hours in 2019, channels that résumé: “There’s dirt on my nails and these calloused hands.”

“With a Friend Like You” by Reba Rambo. (Released November 1, 1980.) In 1967, Dawson Springs, Hopkins County, tenor vocalist Reba Rambo toured Vietnam performing with her family for US troops. By 1980, she was one of the most decorated contemporary Christian soloists in gospel music. Written by Rambo and her then-husband, “With a Friend Like You” is a high-production-value pop earworm.

“String’s Mountain Dew” by Stringbean. (Recorded c. 1962.) At twelve, Annville, Jackson County’s David “Stringbean” Akeman (1915–73) traded two prize bantam chickens for his first banjo. During his decades-long stint on the Grand Ole Opry, where he wore an elongated shirt tucked into comically low-waisted pants, he adapted “Good Old Mountain Dew,” a ditty a moonshiner’s attorney wrote in 1928.

“Mami” by Asly Toro. (Released February 13, 2024.) Barinas, Venezuela, native Asly Toro grew up dancing salsa with her mom and singing the Bee Gees with her dad. At five, she got a singing role on the TV show ¿Cuánto Vale el Show? In 2013, she moved to Louisville, Jefferson County, where she makes Latin pop music. She also performs as the frontwoman of the 1920s jazz act Billy Goat Strut Revue.

“Bring Me a Rose” by Hong Shao. (Recorded August 22, 2013.) Born and educated in China, Hong Shao of Nicholasville, Jessamine County, holds workshops on Chinese culture for Kentucky students and teachers. An expert on the pipa, a pear-shaped lute, she performs songs such as “Bring Me a Rose” composed by Wang Fandi. In 2006, she cofounded the Pipa Club at Scott County’s Garth Elementary.

“Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind)” by Loretta Lynn. (Released 1967.) Born to a coal miner and subsistence farmer in a one-room log cabin in Butcher Hollow near Van Lear, Johnson County, Loretta Lynn (1932–2022) is the quintessential Kentucky musician. In 1967, she released “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind),” which became her first number-one country hit.

“Yellow Peril” by Nat Myers. (Released March 2, 2023.) Korean-American blues poet Nat Myers of Covington, Kenton County, teamed up with Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach on “Yellow Peril,” a song Nat wrote just before the Stop Asian Hate movement took off. “I knew they were going to blame us yellow folks for the virus,” he said. “I’m all about Yellow Power. I want this record to raise my folks up.”

“For a Night” by Brit Taylor. (Released February 3, 2023.) In the late 1990s, a then-seven-year-old Patty Loveless fan from Hindman, Knott County, named Brit Taylor got her start performing country music as a member of the local Kentucky Opry chapter in nearby Prestonsburg. In 2007, she moved to Nashville to study music at Middle Tennessee State. She recently released her sophomore album, Kentucky Blue.

“Charles Guiteau” by A. L. Phipps and the Phipps Family. (Released 1965.) Barbourville, Knox County’s A. L. Phipps (1916–95) was an L & N Railroad employee and a patriarch-guitarist for the Phipps Family. The anonymously penned ballad “Charles Guiteau” is about the man who in 1881 assassinated President James A. Garfield. Eastern Kentuckians also remembered Garfield for leading Union forces there in 1862.

“How Long Has it Been?” by Bobby Lewis. (Released 1966.) Bobby Lewis comes from Hodgenville, LaRue County. “Bobby is the first as well as the only country music player to play a lute rather than the more familiar instruments,” a 1967 Louisiana Sun article reports. “[His wife Pat] makes all of his extremely attractive costumes, including [a] colorful red velvet design . . . studded with Persian rhinestones.”

“Phoebe the Yodeling Cowgirl” by Phoebe White ft. Riders in the Sky. (Released September 9, 2022.) Most of the vocals twelve-year-old London, Laurel County, prodigy Phoebe White recorded for her debut album were captured in single takes. On “Phoebe the Yodeling Cowgirl,” she boasts: “My yodeling swept the country epidemic that all caught us / Now everybody knows me as the Epiglottis Goddess!”

“All Your’n” by Tyler Childers. (Released June 21, 2019.) Born and raised south of Louisa in Lawrence County, Tyler Childers is the son of a coal miner and a nurse. He now lives in Estill County with “my lady of the Estill Springs,” one of several references to his Irvine-native wife, musician Senora May, on the 2019 album Country Squire. “I’ll love ya ‘til my lungs give out—I ain’t lyin / I’m all your’n you’re all mine.”

“Tom Barrett” by Ian Noe. (Released March 25, 2022.) Ian Noe’s “Tom Barrett” follows a WWII veteran who, having been thrust into violence, returns to Noe’s hometown [Beattyville, Lee County] haunted by his trauma. “On the day I turned forty-one I was crawling up a ditch in Greece / About to end a man when they stopped me at his heels / Never knew how they handled him / And don’t guess I ever will.”

“Kentucky Born” by Betty Jean Robinson. (Released August 1, 1991.) Born in Hyden, Leslie County, Betty Jean Robinson (1933–2021) recorded thirty-six albums. In 1968, Billboard named her Female Country Songwriter of the Year. Later, in the 1970s, she became a born-again Christian. “When I opened up my heart, Jesus moved in,” she sings. “This little girl’s Kentucky-born—Kentucky Born Again.”

“Nona” by Slut Pill. (Released January 24, 2020.) Formed in 2018 by Paulina Vazquez, Carrie Carter, and Mitchella Phipps, Slut Pill is a “contraceptive rock” band from Whitesburg, Letcher County. “Slut Pill would not be without “The Pill,”” they posted after their idol died. “Loretta Lynn walked so we could stumble and crawl in the path she laid before us. Eastern Kentuckian excellence in its purest form.”

“Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio” by Faith Esham, et al. (Released 1988.) Urged by her Morehead State voice teacher, Vanceburg, Lewis County, soprano Faith Esham pursued a career in music. In 1977, she made her New York operatic debut as Cherubino, the male page infatuated with his godmother (“Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio”), in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, an opera she’s since appeared in 100+ times.

“Lincoln County Line” by Highway Natives. (Released June 24, 2022.) Waynesburg, Lincoln County’s Brandon Moore is the only Kentuckian in the Nashville-based rock band Highway Natives. “I wrote [“Lincoln County Line”] during a little period of homesickness,” he told the Frazier. The song mentions the “top of Halls Gap into Ottenheim,” the community where his grandmother lives on Allen Road.

“Austin Stream” by the Michael Smith Quartet. (Recorded November 3–4, 1976.) Tiline, Livingston County, native Michael J. Smith (1938–2022) became a free jazz pianist and composer. While pioneering a style he called “Geomusic” in the 1970s, he lived in an abandoned school in Kivik, Sweden. In 1995, he worked with his future wife, Chinese mandopop star Wei Wei, on her debut English album The Twilight.

“Hey Hey” by Athena Cage. (Released 2001.) By 1989, Athena Cage—who’d been a track runner and science fair competitor in Russellville, Logan County—was a chemistry major at WKU, a Miss Black Essence pageant contestant, and a vocalist at the Starmania talent show in Daysville. In 2004, the mayor of Russellville renamed Second Street, where the now-famous pop singer grew up, Athena Cage Way.

“Sixty to One” by RISK. (Recorded 1984.) Recorded by “prison rock” quartet RISK while incarcerated in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Lyon County, “Sixty to One” recounts how three RISK members had attempted escape—the title a reference to their odds of succeeding. “They didn’t make it over the wall,” fourth member Joe Peck told the Frazier. “But they definitely did give it their best shot.”

“Kiss You All Over” by Exile. (Recorded 1977–78.) Originally formed as a high school band in Richmond, Madison County, in the mid-1960s, the Lexington-based pop group Exile rose to fame in 1978 with the Billboard chart–topping “Kiss You All Over.” Guitarist and vocalist J.P. Pennington is the son of bluegrass singer Glenn Pennington and banjoist Lily May Ledford, whose dress is on display at the Frazier Museum.

“Sporting Bachelors” by Buell Kazee. (Recorded c. 1929.) Born at Mash Fork, Magoffin County, Buell Kazee (1900–76), who studied ancient languages at Georgetown College, had a repertoire of folk songs. During a 1926 show at a UK gym, he said funny songs like “Sporting Bachelors”—about a cuckold’s despair—were traditionally danced to the fiddle after an apple cutting, a log rolling, or even a wedding.

“Another You” by Layla Spring. (Released February 14, 2020.) In 2018, then-sixteen-year-old Lebanon, Marion County, native Layla Spring competed on American Idol, making it to the top twenty-four before getting eliminated. After covering a Carrie Underwood song at the American Music Awards in 2019, Spring’s fans, dubbed “Springers,” cast their votes, enabling Spring to return to Idol for a second shot.

“Cornbread, Meat Loaf, Greens, and Deviled Eggs” by Father Tom Vaughn. (Released 1967.) A pianist from age seven, Benton, Marshall County, native Father Tom Vaughn (1936–2011) entered the Episcopal priesthood before finding success as a soul jazz and post-bop pianist in the late 1960s. The rollicking 1967 swing number “Cornbread, Meat Loaf, Greens, and Deviled Eggs” is an original composition.

“Good Morning” by Nimrod Workman. (Recorded 1982.) Named for his grandfather, a Cherokee who fought in the Civil War and taught him old ballads from the British Isles, coal miner Nimrod Workman (1895–1994) of Inez, Martin County, spreads love on the tongue twister “Good Morning.” “There never was people . . . who loved you and your people like me and my people love you and your people.”

“Sisters” by Rosemary and Betty Clooney. (Released 1954.) Recorded for the musical White Christmas, “Sisters” was written by Irving Berlin and performed by Maysville, Mason County, natives: the film’s female lead Rosemary Clooney (1928–2002) and her sister Betty (1931–76). “Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister / And Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!”

“Pianoflage” by Fate Marable’s Society Syncopators. (Recorded March 16, 1924.) Born and raised in Paducah, McCracken County, Fate Marable (1890–1947) was the son of James and Lizzie L. Marable. His mother, who had taught music when she was a slave, trained him. Fate became a bandleader and a riverboat calliope player, directing and playing piano on a 1924 recording of Roy Bargy’s “Pianoflage.”

“Sweet Sue” by Scotty Anderson. (Recorded May–June 2000.) As a boy, Merle Travis–style guitar picker Scotty Anderson moved to Whitley City, McCreary County. The title of his album Triple Stop refers to a technique he developed. “You can use two fingers together like they’re glued, simultaneously hitting down and up,” he told the Cincinnati Post in 2001. “Now you’re flowing with it as a unit back and forth.”

“Lonesome Roads” by Colt Graves. (Released May 11, 2022.) When Calhoun, McLean County, musician Colt Graves brought his two boys and his girlfriend to ride the trails at Wranglers Campground at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky, nature didn’t cooperate: it rained. So he pulled out his guitar and wrote a song. “Lonesome roads are all I know / There ain’t no sunshine or blue skies around me.”

“Leave her Be” by Army of Life. (Released September 29, 2023.) Inspired by 1970s artists Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and B.B. King, Brandenburg, Meade County, band Army of Life consist of four teens. They’ve performed at local venues such as Dore’s Corner Tavern in Payneville and Derby City Pizza in Orell. They recorded their nine-song demo in Elizabethtown when three of the members were still in high school.

“Blackberry Boogie” by Delbert Barker. (Released 1952.) A resident of a farm in Frenchburg, Menifee County, from his birth in 1932 to 1943, Delbert Barker recorded covers of popular rockabilly songs in the mid-1950s. In 1952, he put out a rendition of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s ode to the state fruit of Kentucky, “Blackberry Boogie.” In 1960, he left the music business and became a law enforcement officer in Ohio.

“Hot Beer” by Dillon Carmichael. (Released May 14, 2021.) A baritone from Burgin, Mercer County, Dillon Carmichael has a toxic ex who wants to reconcile. His response? “I’d rather drink a hot beer, build a fire in the pouring rain / Burn all of my fishing gear, set sail in a hurricane / Go hunting with an empty gun, see a once-in-a-lifetime deer / Work a Saturday just for fun, then come home and drink a hot beer.”

“Ghost of Floyd Collins” by Black Stone Cherry. (Released August 16, 2008.) On January 30, 1925, caver Floyd Collins became trapped in a crawlway fifty-five feet below ground in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, dying two weeks later. “Down in Mammoth Cave is where his body laid,” Chris Robertson of Edmonton, Metcalfe County, hard rock band Black Stone Cherry sings. “Mr. Collins, you did not die in vain!”

“Margaret’s Waltz” by na Skylark. (Released October 22, 2017.) Raised in Tompkinsville, Monroe County, along the knobs of the Cumberland plateau, Irish harp and Appalachian dulcimer player Lorinda Jones is part of the all-women Celtic music trio na Skylark. In 2017, the group recorded “Margaret’s Waltz,” a song the late J. P. Fraley learned in the UK then performed at a fiddle contest in Kentucky.

“State Line” by Larah Helayne. (Released May 13, 2022.) Larah Helayne of Mt. Sterling, Montgomery County, is a Queer, Appalachian banjoist and singer. As a rebound from their “first big gay breakup” in southeastern Kentucky, their heart led them to a Virginian. “I’m driving up the Clinch from the Kentucky side,” they sing, referencing Clinch Mountain. “I’ll meet you at the state line if I can see you tonight.”

“Kentucky Daisy” by Lawrence Bishop. (Released 2004.) Legend has it, on April 22, 1889, a stake-wielding Louisvillian named Nanitta Daisy jumped from a moving train in Edmond Station, Oklahoma, staked her land claim, then reboarded the train. Born fifty years later in Zag, Morgan County, Kentucky, bluegrass mandolinist Rev. Lawrence Bishop (1942–2011) pays tribute to Nanitta in “Kentucky Daisy.”

“Sixteen Tons” by Merle Travis. (Released June 9, 1947.) “You load sixteen tons—what do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt,” country western picker Merle Travis (1917–83) of Rosewood, Muhlenberg County, croons on his 1947 folk song about a miner of the western Kentucky coalfields caught in debt bondage. “St. Peter don’t you call `cause I can’t go / I owe my soul to the company store!”

“Eid” by Yared Sound. (Released December 18, 2020.) Originally from Bardstown, Nelson County, Jared Zarantonello, a.k.a. Yared Sound, is a sound artist and an educator at Rhythm Science Sound in Louisville. A mix of electronic drum programming, sampling, and turntablism, “Eid” features plucked oud strings and vocal melodies sampled and scratched from a vinyl recording of a Sudanese children’s choir.

“Arc-Lite” by Bill Roundtree. (Released August 16, 2016.) Born in Carlisle, Nicholas County, Bill Roundtree (1975–2020) relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, at age five. A guitar instructor for over twenty-five years, as well as a touring and recording artist, he played every genre from hard rock to lullabies. His technical chops shine on his 2016 rendition of Swiss thrash metal band Coroner’s 1988 song “Arc-Lite.”

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” by Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys. (Recorded September 4, 1954.) Born on his family’s farm near Rosine, Ohio County, the “Father of Bluegrass” Bill Monroe (1911–96) grew up playing traditional tunes on mandolin, guitar, and fiddle. On March 31, 1988, Gov. Wallace Wilkinson signed a bill designating Monroe’s waltz “Blue Moon of Kentucky” the official bluegrass song of Kentucky.

“Home” by Joan Shelley. (Released June 24, 2022.) Founded in 1849, Goshen is a riverfront community in Oldham County named for the Biblical land the Hebrews departed at the time of the Exodus. Today, it’s home to horse farms and a 168-acre nature preserve with grasses, wildflowers, songbirds, streams, and ravines. Folk and roots musician Joan Shelley wrote “Home” about her upbringing in Goshen.

“Martha Campbell” by John Harrod. (Released November 21, 2017.) In 2017, John Harrod, a Kentucky music scholar who lives at Kays Branch in Monterey, Owen County, released Johnny Come Along: Old Time Fiddle Tunes from Kentucky. One of the tunes, “Martha Campbell,” was first recorded in 1925 by Doc Roberts, who allegedly learned it from Owen Walker, a Black fiddler from Madison County, in 1915.

“Mean” by Taylor Austin Dye. (Released December 13, 2019.) “Mean” is Booneville, Owsley County, artist Taylor Austin Dye’s ode to the world’s best-selling Kentucky Bourbon. “If I drink a shot of whiskey, Katie bar the door / And if I think you’re lookin’ at me, we’ll wind up on the floor,” she sings. “Kissin’, cussin’, fightin’, fussin’, everything in between / I just can’t help it baby: that Jim Beam makes me mean!”

“Infiddility” by Music City Doughboys. (Released December 30, 2013.) As a child in the 1990s, Goforth, Pendleton County’s Brandon Godman used his farm money to buy a fiddle. He took lessons from expert fiddler Blanche Coldiron, who made him soup, beans, and fried cornbread. Godman, who has played Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, and the Today Show, wrote “Infiddility” for his Western swing band.

“Black Waters” by Jean Ritchie. (Released 1970.) The youngest of fourteen children, folk icon Jean Ritchie (1922–2015) of Viper, Perry County, grew up singing ballads her ancestors had brought from England, Scotland, and Ireland. On “Black Waters,” she skewers the coal tycoons who’ve poisoned her land. “If I had ten million, somewhere thereabout / I’d buy Perry County and run them all out.”

“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” by Patty Loveless. (Released June 11, 2001.) In 1997, Darrell Scott wrote a now-iconic song about the plight of Harlan County coal miners. In 2001, Pikeville, Pike County’s Patty Loveless recorded a rendition. “In the deep dark hills of Eastern Kentucky / That’s the place where I trace my bloodline / And it’s there I read on a hillside gravestone / “You’ll never leave Harlan alive.””

“How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?” by the Coon Creek Girls. (Released January 1982.) On June 8, 1939, the all-women string band the Coon Creek Girls, fronted by fiddler Lily May Ledford (1917–85) from the Red River Gorge area in Powell County, performed “How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?” at the White House for the Roosevelts and their special guests, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England.

“Better Parts” by Tiny Tiny. (Released July 29, 2016.) Somerset, Pulaski County, indie pop act Tiny Tiny consists of Boone Williams and “a rotating cast of friends, family, and other weirdos” in south central Kentucky. “What I would tell young artists in the area is find your people,” he told the Commonwealth Journal in 2022. “Don’t let anyone else define for you what it is to be an artist in Somerset, Kentucky.”

“I Miss Kentucky” by Kelley Ray King. (Released January 14, 2016.) At seven, Kelley Ray King listened to the country music his mother played on the radio in their kitchen in Mount Olivet, Robertson County, while she did housework. He picked up saxophone and guitar at his Germantown grade school. The day after his high school graduation in 1986, his family left Kentucky. He is now an electrician in Wyoming.

“Young Edward” by Dora Mae Wagers. (Released 1999.) Born in Hazel Patch, Dora Mae Wagers (1927–98), the only child of a factory worker and a seamstress, grew up hearing music at square dances, barn raisings, and corn shuckings. Having been taught banjo by her grandmother, she performed at Renfro Valley Barn Dance for forty years. In 1998, she died at her home in Livingston, Rockcastle County.

“Dead Horses” by the Local Honeys. (Released July 15, 2022.) On “Dead Horses,” the Local Honeys, who met at Morehead State in Rowan County, explore a tragedy Kentucky farmers have been experiencing since the 1700s. “I never got used to watching horses die / They die badly, it has kept me up at night / I never got used to watching horses die / Count my pretty ponies when I greet the morning light.”

“Falling from Grace” by Gravel Switch. (Released August 31, 2011.) Named for an unincorporated community in Marion County, Gravel Switch is a high-energy rock ’n roll band from Jamestown, Russell County. They’ve shared stages with Black Stone Cherry, Tantric, Hinder, and other hard rock legends. Seether-esque tracks such as “Falling from Grace” would fit in on a Madden video game soundtrack.

“Old Souls” by Jen Tackett. (Released June 3, 2022.) A self-proclaimed “wife, mother, musician, loud laugher, [and] nerd,” Jen Tackett grew up on a farm in Georgetown, Scott County, that inspired her love of both music and agriculture. She sings “he always takes the old roads even though the new ones will get him where he needs to go”—a line inspired by her love for driving down Georgetown’s Main Street.

“Denver” by Jack Harlow. (Released April 28, 2023.) Louisville ambassador Jack Harlow was partly raised in Shelbyville, Shelby County. “I find myself wondering if the people that write about me are right about me / I wonder if my exes are oversharing `cause they know a lot about me,” he raps on “Denver.” “I’m a long way from Shelby County / I been through some local tension, heard talks of a healthy bounty.”

“Nocturne I: C Major” by Our Transient Lives. (Released October 1, 2021.) “There’s something sacred to me about being alone in an old, redbrick house in the center of my town left alone with a piano for fifteen minutes,” Franklin, Simpson County’s Jared Rosdeutscher writes of his ambient solo piano album Nocturnes I. “Even though the piano may be old and out of tune, it still has a special sound to it.”

“Doggy Joe (Previously Unreleased)” by Bill Carlisle. (Released 2002.) At live shows, energetic Wakefield, Spencer County, country singer “Jumpin’” Bill Carlisle (1908–2003) staged mock fights with his brother, steel guitarist Cliff: he stood flat-footed on a chair, jumped over it, and jumped back. The showman last performed at the Grand Ole Opry at age ninety-four in 2003, a month before he died.

“Project” by Chase McDaniel. (Released May 27, 2022.) Native to Greensburg, Green County, pop country singer Chase McDaniel also calls Campbellsville, Taylor County, home. After graduating U of L, he moved to Nashville to pursue a music career. But early in the pandemic, jobless and down to $12, he almost turned back. His fortunes changed, though, and his 2022 song “Project” topped several charts.

“Best Mistake” by JamisonParker. (Released July 12, 2005.) Jamison Covington grew up in Guthrie, Todd County, and worked at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket. In 2002, he moved to California, where he and Parker Case formed JamisonParker. Around 2003, Covington temporarily moved back to Kentucky, where he exchanged music tapes with Case via mail. In 2005, the emo duo released their first album.

“Yakety Sax” by Boots Randolph. (Released 1963.) Hailing from Cadiz, Trigg County, tenor saxophone player Boots Randolph co-wrote and performed a song that has since become associated worldwide with slapstick. From the 1960s on, “Yakety Sax” was used frequently in the UK’s Benny Hill Show, played over time-lapse footage of whacky pursuits, car chases, and other sketch comedy shenanigans.

“Washington Quadrille” by Jimmie Johnson String Band. (Recorded 1931.) Trimble County fiddler Les Smitha (pronounced “Smitty”) recorded two cuts with Jimmie Johnson String Band. Later, after losing half of his right hand’s index finger in a well digging accident, he used his stub as a bar. Then, he lost his right arm at the elbow, but made a device that allowed him to hold the bow so he could keep fiddling.

“The Soul of Me” by Dottie Rambo. (Released 1968.) Singer and guitarist Dottie Rambo (1934–2008) was raised with ten siblings near Morganfield, Union County. At twelve, she left home. She became a gospel sensation, recording seventy records and touring as far as Greenland, Vietnam, and beyond the Iron Curtain. Her 1968 song “The Soul of Me” won the Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Performance.

“Good Day” by Nappy Roots. (Released August 5, 2008.) Formed in 1995 by WKU students in Bowling Green, Warren County, Southern hip hop group Nappy Roots rose to fame in the early 2000s. Aided by a children’s choir, their feel-good 2008 hit “Good Day” manifests a no-drama summer day in Bowling Green. “Last night, hit the pick three, bought some Air Force Ones / Four tall tees, man I’m lovin’ BG!”

“Ladies Old Time Band” by Sue Massek. (Released December 30, 2010.) In 1994, Sue Massek, who’d hitchhiked to Kentucky in 1976, moved to Willisburg, Washington County. She plays banjo in the Reel World String Band—“Kentucky’s feminist hillbilly band.” She wrote “Ladies Old Time Band” after a city councilman remarked that he’d book Reel World for a gig if his colleagues weren’t “old fuddy-duddies.”

“Ladies on the Steamboat” by Burnett & Rutherford. (Recorded November 3, 1927.) Born in Elk Spring Valley in Monticello, Wayne County, traveling banjoist Dick Burnett (1883–1977) was blind most of his life. Around 1914, Leonard Rutherford (1900–54) of Somerset became his sighted companion. In return, Burnett helped the young fiddler master his craft as they toured from Cincinnati to Chattanooga.

“Becky’s Bible” by Chris Knight. (Released 2001.) Accused of cheating in a card game, Slaughters, Webster County, singer Chris Knight shoots his accuser, flees, and hides in the swamps of the Green River bottoms, praying that no homicide occurred: this is the plot of “Becky’s Bible.” ““I wonder if Becky’s Bible is still in the glove box,” he sings. “`Cause I’m sure gonna need it if that boy died.”

“But I’m Afraid” by Debbie Dean. (Released August 25, 1961.) In 1960, Corbin, Whitley County, native Reba Jeanette Smith (1928–2001), a.k.a. Debbie Dean, signed a three-year contract with Motown Records. As the label’s first white woman solo recording artist, the redheaded singer cut three singles—“Itty Bitty Pity Love,” “But I’m Afraid,” and “Don’t Let Him Shop Around”—before settling in California.

“Palomino Princess” by Tyler Booth. (January 8, 2021.) Born and raised in a musical family in Campton, Wolfe County, Tyler Booth often sat in on the rehearsals for his dad’s rock band. He later enrolled in Morehead State University’s Traditional Music Studies program and got connected with a Nashville producer. As of 2024, his song “Palomino Princess” has been streamed over 16 million times on Spotify.

“Neon Cowboy” by the Kentucky Gentlemen. (Released October 27, 2023.) Twins Brandon and Derek Campbell of Versailles, Woodford County, grew up singing gospel music in a church choir and R & B songs to their brother’s keyboard beats. They harmonize over a 1990s pop country beat in “Neon Cowboy,” a honky tonk hit whose music video celebrates the legacy of Black cowboys and rodeo culture.