Songs about small towns

Cafe Society
1

Help me come up with a list of songs about small towns. The songs can be about a specific small town, small towns in general, or just evocative of a small town atmosphere. Here’s all I have so far:

**Our Town **- Iris DeMint
Small Town Saturday Night - Hal Ketchum
Morgan Town - Joni Mitchell

2

How about Small Town, by John Mellencamp?

3

Probibly, the biggest song about the smallest town was written by Waylon Jennings “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the basics of love.” The town is so small it posted a population of 3 and was listed for sale at one time.

SGT Schwartz

4

I’m 15 minutes too late, as usual. But I can mention that it contains my favorite forced song lyric: “I cannot forget from where it is that I come from.”

5

“Tillsonburg” by Stompin’ Tom Connors

I grew up 10 minutes from Tillsonburg so the fact that there is a song about it is kind of cool.

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  • “…it’s a small town
    we can’t sell you no beer
    it’s a small town, son,
    may I ask what you’re doin’ here?”*

Talkin’ at the Texaco by James McMurtry

7

Johnsburg, Illinois by Tom Waits. Such a pretty song.

8

"Nothing but the dead and dying back in “My Little Town”, by Simon and Garfunkle.

9

My Hometown - Bruce Springsteen
Cowtown - They Might Be Giants
Rock This Town - Stray Cats
Allentown - Billy Joel
Hackensack - Fountains of Wayne

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“Chevy Van” - Sammy Kershaw

I put her out in a town that was so small
You could throw a rock from end to end
A dirt road main street, she walked off in her barefeet
And it’s a shame I won’t be passin’ through again

11

Okie From Muscogee sung by Merle Haggard

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Harper Valley PTA

13

Lodi by CCR

14

“Nobody Gets Off in This Town” by Garth Brooks was the first to pop into my head.

15

“China Grove” by the Doobie Brothers. (Down around San Antone!)

16

Alabama - The Cheap Seats

17

Backward Town - The Grapes of Wrath

18

Tiny Town - Dead Milkmen
Stockton Gala Days - 10,000 Maniacs. (You can’t tell if it’s necessarily about the tiny village of Stockton, NY, but it is evocative of a very small bucolic town. And Stockton used to have a small-medium sized fireman’s fair every year, called of course Stockton Gala Days.)

19

I Wonder (Departure)–ABBA

My house and my family
This dull little town
Everything dear, will it be here
One day when I am returning?

My friends will get married
Have children and homes.
It seems so nice, well planned and wise
Never expecting surprises.

20

Thanks for the help, everybody. Keep 'em coming.

I actually forgot the one that got me started on this - In a Town this Size by John Prine and Delores Kearn:

In a town this size
There is no place to hide
Everywhere you go
You meet someone you know

Also Talahatchee Bridge by Bobby Gentry