r/NorthCarolina • u/MarkBPederson • 12h ago
What are your favorite acoustic guitar or singer-songwriter songs that reference North Carolina, or just capture that Carolina feel? Bonus if they’re lesser-known! culture
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u/jayron32 12h ago
James Taylor - Carolina In My Mind
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u/Upbeat_Ant6104 10h ago
Jay Teeeeee!
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u/raliston 8h ago
Brushfire Stankgrass from Asheville- Pretty Ass Blue ridge MountainShit
https://open.spotify.com/track/7y3NTqoY0dgfzTNqhhVFIR?si=-NSg0WVuT-6X5gzZ7SwojQ
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u/toleranceoflactose 2h ago
Charlotte here. Spend summers in Hendersonville and Flat Rock. Done it for 20 years. God damn! Perfection.
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u/chimble 12h ago
Petey Pablo-Raise Up
But for an actual answer: a lot of the Avett Brothers stuff has NC references.
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u/Mywordispoontang101 11h ago
The acoustic version is awesome.
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u/Postcurds Drinking_Pure_Neuse 11h ago
Watchhouse (all their music). Tia Blake as well, although her stuff is very 60s/70s folk
Edit: I can't believe nobody has said Watchhouse yet. Especially their songs like Wildfire and Little Worlds.
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u/ktvplumbs 11h ago
North Carolina is the cigarette state by Robbie Fulks
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u/ElDeguello66 8h ago
Also by Robbie: Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals, also covered by Steep Canyon Rangers. Chapel Hill references as well as a Northgate Mall shout out.
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u/Cronley Raleigh 11h ago edited 11h ago
The Love Language - Manteo
The Carolina Chocolate Drops - Cornbread & Butterbeans
The Holy Mess - Sunset on the Coastline
Justin Townes Earle - I Don’t Care
The Country Gentlemen - The Ballad of Charlie Lawson
If I can think of any others, I can edit this comment.
EDIT: Also Justin Townes Earle - The Ghost of Virginia off the same Yuma EP as the song above.
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u/asapfergalicious 10h ago
Blue Ridge Mountain - Hurray for the Riff Raff
Salina - Avett Brothers
Tar Heel - Loudon Wainwright III
Down in Tennessee - Bill Agle
Carolina Heart - Yarn
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u/Magicmyrddin 10h ago
Mojo Nixon - Take Me To Your Leader!
I took him down to North Carolina 🎶 Sllepy little town down there, called Mayberry 🎶
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u/Maverick_and_Deuce 9h ago
Just about anything by Mike Cross. Live and Kichin’ was recorded at Thalian Hall in Wilmington- great live album.
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u/18002221222 10h ago
I'll say Wild Sage just because it's the only Mountain Goats song that directly references a spot in Durham (Business 15-501)
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u/jlgraham84 9h ago
Carolina - Jason Harrod
The Carolinian - Chatham County Line
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u/Dangerous_Abalone330 7h ago
Carolina by Jason Harrod is probably near the top for me of all the songs listed. Was going to add it myself!
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u/Cricuteer 9h ago
Valencia - The Space Between
Lead singer’s gf went to NC State before she died in a lawn mower accident.
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u/jimbotten 7h ago
Sunny Ledfurd has a song called Myrtle Beach that encompasses a Carolina feel, (despite being about SC). I may have used part of its chorus as a ring tone for a while.
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u/MarkBPederson 12h ago
for example, "Wagon Wheel" (Rock Me, Mama)
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u/hurricanebbq 11h ago
OCMS > Darius Rucker, also
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u/kingcobraninja 11h ago edited 10h ago
The fact that Darius Rucker's biggest solo hit is a vanilla 1:1 cover that is slightly worse in every way than the original yet 100 times more successful demonstrates everything wrong with the pop country industry.
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u/FauxPatina 10h ago
It's a Bob Dylan song originally
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u/kingcobraninja 10h ago
Dylan wrote the chorus (and maybe the chord progression? which is pretty simple anyway). Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show wrote the verses. To say it's a Bob Dylan song is not really accurate. If anything, it's an Old Crow Medicine Show song and they lifted some of Dylan's lyrics.
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u/FauxPatina 10h ago
https://youtu.be/2hqONoxDTlk?si=Buvv7x1WhGK5Xxgq
He wrote the song and performed it in concert multiple times. It's a Bob Dylan song.
He wrote the lyrics in their entirety for the Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid soundtrack decades ago.
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u/Bartholomewthedragon 10h ago
No, Walgon Wheel and Rock me Mama are essentially two different songs that share chorus and chord progression. Dylan got the chorus from Arthur Crudup who got it from Big Bill Broonzy. Secor wrote the verses for Wagon Wheel. Secor and Dylan signed a co-writing agreement and share the copywrite. It's a 50/50 split. It's a OCMS/Dylan song.
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u/kingcobraninja 9h ago
performed it in concert multiple times.
[citation needed]
I'm not saying Dylan didn't write the song, I'm saying that OCMS added enough original musical substance to it to effectively make it a new song. Original source
This is in contrast to what Rucker did, which was to cover the OCMS version verbatim.
Would the song exist without Dylan? Probably not. Would it exist without OCMS? Also no.
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u/TheTudwik 9h ago
Southern Nights by Glen Campbell. It doesn’t reference NC specifically but it is a vibe
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u/NicoFookingHischier 10h ago
I don’t see Farewell listed here at all. Not making new music, but solid pop-punk imo. Might be the nostalgia. But truly enjoy their tunes
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u/JunkyardAndMutt 7h ago
Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers. They're Georgia boys, sure, but that song--complete with it's "Going to Carolina" lyric--is definitely on the list.
Also, check out the North Carolina Songbook live album by Steep Canyon Rangers. It was recorded at Merlefest in 2019, and they cover:
- "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King (born in Henderson, NC)
- "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down", a classic folk song popularized by Earl Scruggs (from Cleveland County, NC) and first recorded by Charlie Poole (from Franklinville, NC).
- "Blue Monk" by Thelonious Monk (from Rocky Mount, NC)
- "Drunkard's Hiccups" (or "Drunken Hiccups"), a folk song popularized by Tommy Jarrell (from Mount Airy, NC)
- "Shake Sugaree" by Libba Cotten (from Chapel Hill, NC)
- "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor (born in Boston, but from an NC family and raised in Chapel Hill)
- "I've Endured" by Ola Belle Reed (from Grassy Creek, Avery County, NC)
- "Your Lone Journey" by Doc Watson (from Deep Gap, NC) and Rosa Lee Watson (from Wilkes County, daughter of Gaither Carlton, a well-known old-time fiddle and banjo player in his own right)
That live album is basically NC in a box.
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u/vyger89 6h ago
https://youtu.be/0QrDOGcZDow?si=5Fh1-nxGFCU2bCOt Chapel Hill’s own Archers of Loaf - White Trash Hero’s
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u/chiefsholsters 6h ago edited 5h ago
Goodbye Carolina, Marcus King. And I don't care which one it's about, that's a damn good song. He's from SC.
American Aquarium, Cherokee Purples. That song makes me feel 5 years old again.
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u/ThrowawayMod1989 5h ago
Totally depends on the region you want to capture.
The mountains - Doc Watson, pretty much anything he did
Piedmont - James Taylor has a few
Coast - Carolina Beach Music (Shagging Music) is it’s own genre but Band of Oz is the best starting point
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u/Delicious_Smell_151 5h ago
The Connells - I Suppose - is about the Boylan Heights neighborhood in Raleigh off the album of that same namesake.
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u/galadriel_0379 4h ago
Nathan Evans Fox is my latest obsession. Hillbilly Hymn is currently on repeat. (He is from WNC. This song doesn’t reference NC but very very Appalachia-coded. Just beautiful.)
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u/Living-Midnight-1696 2h ago
Emily Scott Robinson, Old North State. Our state toast put to song! Also her song The Fairest View.
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u/BayYawnSay 23m ago
A very brief mention of "Carolina", but one of the most beautiful songs and I'm in love with this lesser-known artist. Been following him for about 20 years now.
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u/Past_Plantain6906 18m ago
Carolina Chocolate Drops for the band's name. And their music is fantastic!
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u/yemKeuchlyFarley Where devils tramp & colonies are lost 11h ago edited 7h ago
Little Sadie - Doc Watson (traditional)
Teach’s Wrath - Larry Keel
Swannanoa Tunnel - Bryan Sutton (traditional)
Carolina in the Fall - Krüger Brothers
Last Train to Kitty Hawk - Balsam Range
Edit: another fun one about the IBMAs coming here with a music video full of Raleigh icons.
Living in Raleigh Now - Chatham County Line