“Tennessee” was written by Jimmy Martin and Doyle Neikirk. Martin recorded it with his Sunny Mountain Boys and released it in 1968 as the title track of an album, and it became one of his better-known recordings of the decade.
The song is a tribute to the state, sung by someone away from home and longing to return. The lyric gathers up the mountains, the rivers, and the people of Tennessee into a single image of belonging, and the homesick pull of that image carries the whole song.
The song fit Martin’s hard-driving style and his clear, ringing lead voice.
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