Mississippi River Songs – Mississippi Valley Traveler. The Mississippi River has inspired generations of musicians to write songs about it. In the list below, you will find songs that go back to the beginning of recorded music and others that were recorded in the past year. Many of the songs are from genres we now call roots music or Americana—traditional blues and country—but the list also includes a number of rock songs, modern country, jazz, and soul. I haven’t come across many hip hop songs, yet, but I’m still looking. Check back often, as I’m continually updating the table. The first time I posted the list, it included about 7. HINT: Check out the piece I wrote about the history of music along the Mississippi River. I’m rather obsessive when it comes to making lists. I like making them, and I like figuring out criteria to make them work. I’m weird that way. After spending a couple of months compiling this list, I realized that my first set of criteria just weren’t going to work. They were too broad, mostly because I wanted to include songs about places along the river, even if the river isn’t mentioned. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I was creating a list without end, especially after I found a web site that listed over 1. Memphis alone. I can only imagine the number of songs that have been written about New Orleans. In the revised list, I have therefore dropped songs that didn’t at least mention the Mississippi River, even if it is about a river town, which I had to drop some of my favorite songs likes St. Louis Blues and Going Back to Memphis. Maybe someday I’ll do a separate list of songs about river towns. So here are the simple rules I am following now to decide whether a song is about the Mississippi River: The song is about the Mississippi River (duh!); or. The lyrics or song title reference the Mississippi River; or. The song is about a river without naming the Mississippi specifically but composed by or performed by an artist who lives/lived along the Mississippi River; or. The lyrics are a bit ambiguous (is it about the state of Mississippi? River Mississippi?), but I think it’s close enough. It is my list, after all. Some of the songs in this list are classics that have been recorded multiple times by many artists. ![]() I doubt if I’ll ever get around to listing each version of those songs, but right now I’m trying to include the first recorded version plus any other versions that I think are fun or interesting. This is why I’ve included several versions of Ol’ Man River, like the reggae interpretation by The Techniques. Download our directory of hip hop blogs and online radio stations that support and promote independent hip hop artists. Between you and me, I don’t care for every song on the list, but that doesn’t really matter; I’m just trying to compile a list t of songs about the Mississippi River Valley. I’ll let you decide which ones you like and which you don’t. Right now, these are my favorites: A Change is Gonna Come: Sam Cooke. Big River: Johnny Cash. Down to Memphis: J. J. Cale. Floating Bridge: Sleepy John Estes. Lee County Flood: William Elliott Whitmore. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man: Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty. Miss the Mississippi and You: Jimmie Rodgers. Mississippi: Ray Bonneville. Mississippi Moon: Greg Brown. Mississippi River Blues: Big Bill Broonzy. Proud Mary: Ike & Tina Turner. Shanty Boat Blues: Jimmy Murphy. To Be Free: Fontella Bass. Watching the River Flow: Leon Russell. This is Mississippi River Songs version 2. Feel free to tell me about other songs about the Mississippi River, and let’s grow this list. By the way, each week I post a Song of the Day blog that features one of these tunes. Subscribe to this blog (just look to the top right corner of this page), and you won’t miss those posts. NEW: I’ve created a playlist in Spotify that includes many of these songs. Get to it here. Notes about the table: The first recorded version of each song is noted with an asterisk (*). Some song titles have been used by multiple songwriters, which makes compiling a list like this a challenge. To help you tell the difference between a remake of an existing song and a new song that just happens to have the the same title as an existing song, I’m using superscripts (numbers) to set the versions apart. So, each song with a superscript “1” is the same song recorded by different artists, while a superscript “2” for that same title indicates that it is a different song. Song. Artist. From. Year. 19. 27 Flood, The. Elders Mc. Intorsh and Edwards. Memphis Gospel: Complete Works: 1. Mississippi - Didn't It Rain. Wild Goose Nation. Mississippi Side A 9. Taylor Rust. 20. 11(I'm Going Back to) Bottomland. Clarence Williams and His Orchestra. Bottomland. 19. 27(Roll on) Mississippi. Strangeloves, The. I Want Candy. 19. The Other End of) the Mississippi River Blues. Pat Donohue. Backroads. A Change is Gonna Come. Sam Cooke. Ain't That Good News. A Country Boy Can Survive. Hank Williams, Jr. Hank Williams, Jr. A Feather's Not a Bird. Rosanne Cash. The River & the Thread. A Mississippi River Poem: Concerto in D Minor for Violin. Max W. Gottschalk[not sure if this was ever recorded]1. A Mississippi Song. Thomas and Theresa. A Mississippi Song. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra & William Perry. Perry: The Innocents Abroad and Other Mark Twain Films, 1. Algiers Point. David Booth. Consolation. 20. 10. Alone in Memphis. Austin Lucas. Stay Reckless. Along for the Ride. Okee Dokee Brothers. Can You Canoe? A Mississippi River Adventure Album. Along the Blue Highway. Larry Long. Run for Freedom, Sweet Thunder. Along the Mississippi. Night Watchmen, The. Rain Come Down. 20. Amtrak Song. Jeffrey C. Capps. The Muddy and the Blue. And the Mississippi Delta Cried. Sammy Walker. Sammy Walker. Arrivederci Mississippi. Ackermans, The Jump in the River Tonight. At the Mississippi Cabaret. St. Louis Ragtimers. St. Louis Ragtimers, Vol. At the Mississippi Cabaret*American Quartet. Victor #1. 76. 50. Atchafalaya. Andrew Mc. Knight. Traveler. Autumn Sunset. Nick Shattuck. Chorus and Verse. Back- Water Blues. Bessie Smith. Empress of the Blues, Vol. Ballad of John Banvard, The. Piñataland. Songs for the Forgotten Future, Vol. Banging Camp. Hold Steady, The. Separation Sunday. Banks of the Mississippi River, The. Idle Ecstatic. 20. Banks of the Old Mississippi, The. Shawnee Kilgore. Second Hand Dress. Baptize Me in the Mississippi River. Jon Waterman. Waterman. Baptized in Dirty Water. Chris Thomas King. Rise. 20. 06barge crossing. Shedding…Dead in the Water. Basin Street Blues. Dr. John. Goin' Back to New Orleans. Battle of New Orleans. Lonnie Donegan and His Skiffle Group. King of Skiffle (1. Battle of New Orleans. Hammerlock. Anthems for Outlaws. Battle of New Orleans. Johnny Horton. Battle of New Orleans (1. Battle of New Orleans. Doug Kershaw. Alive & Pickin'1. Battle of New Orleans*Jimmy Driftwood. Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs. Beale Street Blues. Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy. 19. 54. Beale Street Blues*W. C. Handy. Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Warming by the Devil's Fire (2. Beaver That Ate Moline, The. Michael "Hawkeye" Herman. Beefsteak When I'm Hungry. Steamboatin' Days (1. M. Wheeler. Belly Full of Whiskey (Down the Mississippi)Whiskey War Mountain Rebellion. Rock U Festival/2. Compilation. 20. 12. Beside the Mississippi River. Sounds of Nature, The. Just Nature. 20. 10. Best Blues Come From Old Men. Young and Yata. Snow Has Fallen. Big Missouri[never recorded?]Tom Sawyer: A Musical Play in 1 Act and 7 Scenes. Big Muddy River. 1*Tom Pacheco. Bluefields. 19. 95. Big Muddy River. 2*Traveled Ground. Traveled Ground. 20. Big Muddy. 1*Mojo Blues Band. Blues Parade 2. 00. Big Muddy. 2*Jack Williams. Walkin' Dreams. 20. Big Muddy. 3*Step Into the Blue. Step Into the Blue. Big Muddy. 4*4. 84 South Band, The. Mississippi Nights. Big River, Big Man. Claude King. Meet Claude King. Big River. 1Grateful Dead. Steal Your Face. 19. Big River. 1*Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar. Big River. 2*Zachary Richard. Zack's Bon Ton. 19. Big River. 3*Kevin Fowler. Chippin' Away. 20. Black Water. Doobie Brothers. What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. Blackwater Man. Terry Pepplesoundcloud. Blackwater Music. Spencer Bohren. Blackwater Music. Bottomland. Clarence Williams and His Orchestra. Bottomland. 19. 27. Bottomlands. Shady Mix. Bottomlands. 19. 98. Bound to Talk. John D. Lamb. Soundcloud. Bourbon Street Cowboy. Dash Rip Rock. Country Girlfriend. Broken Levee Blues. Broken Levee Blues. Lonnie Johnson, Vol. Brother. Okee Dokee Brothers. Can You Canoe? A Mississippi River Adventure Album. Brother Lee. Citizen Cope. Every Waking Moment. Reverb. Nation : Artists First. Exclusive Opportunities. From sync offers to label deals to festival slots, nobody has the industry relationships we do. Powerful Services. Our services and tools are designed to help you get more fans, more gigs, and more money. Innovative A& RWe have a dedicated team that listens and curates thousands of songs every week, connecting the right artists to the right opportunities.
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October 2017
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