Discover Louisiana’s places and faces through its musical trail of songs

They’re called earworms, the songs that get stuck in your head and linger for days on end.

Luckily, Louisiana-related earworms are the kinds of songs you’ll want stuck in your head, so much that you’ll want to learn the backstory of each and even travel to the places that inspired them.

Of course, that would require a road trip or two. The state offers much to see and learn, even through its music.

Louisiana’s Department of Culture and Tourism’s travel website, explorelouisiana.com, includes a sampling of Louisiana-based songs to create a trail for music-minded visitors.

The trail can be found in its category of “Great Songs From (and About) Louisiana.”

It’s a Louisiana playlist that highlights the music and places to visit to learn more about the songs and the musicians who made or wrote them. 

You Are My Sunshine

by Jimmie Davis

It’s only appropriate to start the trail with Louisiana’s state song, which also is the second most known song in the world.

Yes, the world. The first? Well, that would be “Happy Birthday.”

Which means you can go almost anywhere in the world and hear the song penned and first recorded by Louisiana’s 47th governor, who served from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964 — all while maintaining a career in both country music and Hollywood. 

Davis wrote the song in 1940, but he also is legendary for riding his horse, Sunshine, up the steps leading to the entrance of Louisiana’s Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, which would be a good place to start your music trail.

Once you’ve reached the top step, why not walk and take the elevator to the top of the tallest state capitol building in the country? After that, drive northward to Chatham in Jackson Parish for an overnight camping adventure at Jimmie Davis State Park, 1209 State Park Road.

Feels Like Rain

by John Hiatt

The best-known recording of John Hiatt’s song was released in 1993 by Lettsworth native Buddy Guy.

The song also references the 24-mile parallel spans of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge, the world’s longest continuous bridge over water.

For this song trail, either drive across the Causeway or simply visit the 630-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain, where there are plenty of opportunities for recreational fishing and boat tours.

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Goodnight Irene

by Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter

Legend has it that after hearing Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter sing his 1933 song, “Goodnight Irene,” Gov. O.K. Allen immediately pardoned the Mooringsport blues singer.

The real story isn’t far from the legend. Ledbetter was serving a prison term at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola when ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax discovered and recorded Ledbetter then later petitioned for the bluesman’s release by playing the recording for the governor.

The recording included both “Midnight Special” and “Goodnight Irene.”   

The lyrics of “Goodnight Irene,” make for the irony of this story. It’s about a homicide — a husband who murders his wife. 

The song trail for “Goodnight Irene” leads to the Lead Belly statue in downtown Shreveport, which is also just a few blocks away from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, 705 Grand Ave.

While there, make a point to stop by the auditorium, itself, which is the home to the original Louisiana Hayride, which introduced a 20-year-old Elvis Presley to a national audience (and the original place where “Elvis has left the building” was uttered.) Take a selfie with the Elvis statue outside the building.

While in Shreveport, be sure to eat at the Fat Calf Brasserie at 3030 Cresswell Ave. If you’re looking for a bar restaurant, try The Noble Savage, 417 Texas St., or The Blind Tiger at 120 Texas St.

Further afield and for a different perspective, visit Angola’s Louisiana Prison Museum and Cultural Center, 17544 Tunica Trace, Angola, which offers plenty of information and artifacts about Lead Belly, as well as other noted musicians who passed through the prison.

Fire on the Bayou

by The Meters: Ziggy Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr., Cyril Neville and Art Neville

“Fire on the Bayou” is the title song for New Orleans funk group The Meters’ 1975 album. A second album with the title track was released in 1981 by The Neville Brothers, Aaron, Art, Cyril and Charles, and called the best album of 1981 by Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards.

Meanwhile, before achieving her own fame, Whitney Houston sang background vocals with her mother, Cissy Houston, on the title track, which Cissy Houston vocally arranged.

For this song trail, you’ll have to wait for holiday season, when the Louisiana tradition of bonfires along the levee are built along the Mississippi River to welcome Papa Noel on Christmas Eve. True, the river isn’t exactly a bayou, but it’s close enough.

Oops, I Did it Again

by Britney Spears

You didn’t really think you would walk away from this without a Britney Spears song, did you? Her pop stardom is as much a part of the Louisiana music scene as any jazz or blues musician.

The Kentwood singer debuted her hit song in 2000, breaking the record for highest first-week sales by a solo artist at the time. She sold some 24 million copies, making “Oops” one of the best-selling songs of all time.

But she didn’t stop there. In 1999, Spears would break her “Oops” sales record with “Baby One More Time.”

So, the song trail for Spears’ pop universe naturally leads to her hometown of Kentwood, where the welcome sign proclaims itself the birthplace of the megastar. Once there, drive to the Kentwood Historical & Cultural Museum, 204 Avenue E, to see an exhibit of the white wings costume worn on her Femme Fatale tour, a Mickey Mouse Club poster with Justin Timberlake, her intact bedroom from a 1999 Rolling Stone photoshoot, along with a few other artifacts.

Born on the Bayou

by John Fogerty

First, let’s get this out of the way: John Fogerty is a Californian.

Still, the Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman has spent his fair share of time performing in Louisiana, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Fogerty was obsessed with Louisiana’s music scene while growing up and developed the unique New Orleans accent heard on many of his classic rock songs through the years. Yet he had never visited Louisiana when writing “Born on the Bayou,” basing the song on encyclopedia research.

This song trail leads to what he envisioned: the state’s countless bayous and swamps to explore.

Lake Charles

by Lucinda Williams

Lake Charles native Lucinda Williams is known for her songwriting and her 1998 commercial breakthrough album, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”

The album included her Grammy Award-nominated hit, “Can’t Let Go,” along with “Lake Charles,” about a late boyfriend, who always considered Louisiana his true home though he was born just across the border in Texas.

The song is heartbreaking, but your trip along this song trail won’t be when you take in everything Lake Charles has to offer, including historic homes, outdoor adventures, lively casinos, Cajun-inspired food and year-round festivals.

Be sure to stop by one of LUNA Bar and Grill’s two locations at 719 Ryan St. downtown or 5656 Nelson Road for lunch or dinner while there.  

Louisiana

by Tim McGraw and Jim McCormick

Country superstar and Start native Tim McGraw co-wrote and “Louisiana” in 2016 with Jim McCormick. In that same year, he recorded the song, which not only references the story’s geographical location but a significant time, place and emotions tied to the place McGraw calls home.

Though you can travel anywhere in the state to get the flavor of McGraw’s song, you may also want to make a special trip to northeast Louisiana, where you can drive through his small hometown of Start, which welcomes visitors with a sign declaring itself McGraw’s hometown. After that, spend some time a few miles down the road in Monroe, home to the museums, the Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo and McGraw’s alma mater of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Louisiana Saturday Night

by Bob McDill

Your feet automatically start moving when you hear Mel McDaniel sing the first words to this one: “Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow, Kick off your shoes and you throw ’em on the floor … “

McDaniel released the song in 1981, and it became a country sensation, especially among the country line sect. One of the best places to hear the song these days is LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, where it’s played preceding the pregame festivities.

Which makes Tiger Stadium a perfect starting point for this song trail. From there, make your way to one of Louisiana’s many Cajun dance halls.

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Hurricane

by Stewart Harris, Thom Schuyler and Keith Stegall

Levon Helm recorded “Hurricane” in 1980, telling the story about an old man in New Orleans’ French Quarter who is unfazed by a warning that a hurricane is coming his way. After Hurricane Katrina, Austin, Texas-based Band of Heathens resurfaced the song

This song trail leads visitors to the “Living With Hurricanes: Katrina & Beyond” exhibit at The Presbytere, 751 Chartres St., New Orleans. Here, you’ll hear eyewitness accounts, see immersive environments and witness in-depth explorations of some of Louisiana’s most devastating moments in history and how the state rose through adversity.

Sure, there are lots of songs that didn’t make the list, Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927,” the Eddie DeLange-Louis Alter tune “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans” and Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” among them. Even Jimmy Driftwood’s 1959 Johnny Horton hit, “The Battle of New Orleans” didn’t make the list.

If you know a song you’d like to add to Louisiana’s Song Trail, let us know by emailing features@theadvocate.com. In the meantime, keep singing.