I’ve been dreading North Dakota for awhile now, hoping that I’d be able to turn something up. I’ve searched Spotify lists of songs with Dakota in the title, trolled lists of ‘great North Dakota songs,’ and cast about fruitlessly on social media.
I never expected that every state would produce an all-time classic, or anything, but my standard has always been that I had to pick a topical song I genuinely liked. And, well, North Dakota is where the well finally ran dry.
Lyle Lovett’s “North Dakota” (which is actually about the Texas borderlands) is fine, but not much more. Sinatra has a song about a girl in ‘North and South Dakota,’ which is at least 50% on the mark. Nanci Griffith wrote a treacly song about hope and change in the wake of Obama’s election that mentions ‘the plains of North Dakota.’ Dolly Parton has a song about getting away from the cold. And…that’s about it?
And so, I’m going with this lovely Ashley Monroe tune, which is only tangentially about North Dakota (which, again, features primarily as something to be escaped). But at least it’s a beautiful song.