A musical celebration of the 50 states. One song each week over the course of the year.
Not too many great songs about Indiana. There are lots of Mellencamp songs about Indiana, but like I said…not too many great songs about Indiana. Anyways, I’m rescued from having to go with “Small Town” or something by the wonderful David Mead album about the state.
It’s one of those great works that manages to convey both what people love about a place and what outsiders hate about it simultaneously. Mead’s Indiana is the ‘middle of nowhere,’ which the singer has to trek through on an endless tour, to little acclaim. But it’s also portrayed as beautiful in its own quiet way. As you travel through, you only experience the loneliness, but you can sense that it really does count as home for all these people that you pass along the way. And in some ways, that makes it hurt just a little bit more.