“Tennessee” is credited to Jimmy Martin and Doyle Neikirk. Martin recorded it with the Sunny Mountain Boys on 31 August 1962 at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, with Owen Bradley producing, but it was not released until March 1968, when Decca issued it as a single (Decca 32300) backed with “Steal Away Somewhere and Die.” Decca gave the title to Martin’s next album, Tennessee, released that June. Martin sang lead, with Paul Williams on tenor, Lois Johnson on high baritone and Kirk Hansard on bass vocal; Bill Emerson played banjo, Joe Zinkan bass and Doug Kirkham drums.
The song is a homesick tribute to the state, sung by a man who has strayed. He praises its green valleys and tall mountains and the home of Davy Crockett in the hills, remembers his mother telling him as a boy not to roam, and says that his heart is full of woe when he thinks of his mother and father. He closes on a sweetheart who has promised to marry him when he gets back to Tennessee.
It was included on Martin’s 1971 MCA collection Jimmy Martin’s Greatest Hits, and he sang it on the live double album Bean Blossom (MCA, 1973). Gary Brewer included it on the tribute album Jimmy Martin Songs for Dinner (Stretchgrass, 1999).
