My Second Home
You might think that being from Michigan I would inherently hate all things Ohio. That seems to be a very common sentiment across the board. For whatever reason, the two states absolutely hate each other. Maybe it goes all the way back to The War of 1812, who really knows. It doesn't help that there is this massive rivalry between that trash school University of Michigan, and that other trash school Ohio State University to keep things extra salty.
For me, as the title suggests, Ohio has become something of a second home for me and though if I put them head to head, I obviously think Michigan wins in terms of natural beauty, there are some things about Ohio that I really do love. As you can see from the opening photo, if you make it down to the lower south east corner of the state, there are some really amazing geological wonders and some decent altitude changes.
In addition to that, the cities of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland have some really amazing culinary offerings and have become true hubs of the midwest if you consider yourself a foodie. I could care less about the sports teams, but the fact that my nieces and their family live down there make it a bit easier for me to fall a little more in love with it every time I head down there.
If you haven't guessed yet, we are continuing our musical road trip across the United States and this week we are rolling into the Buckeye state of Ohio for #threetunetuesday sponsored by @ablaze. This was actually a really easy one for me, not just from a content standpoint, but there are a ton of songs that have the word Ohio in the title or lyrics of the song.
Oddly enough, a ton of them are actually country songs as I start to go through the list of songs that fit the criteria for this week. It wasn't really intentional, and I am going to try to avoid using all country songs, but it's interesting just how many there are.
Let's get to it.
This is not the first time I have shared the song "Pancho and Lefty" and I'm not really sad or mad about that at all. It's just a dang good song. I think some people might not appreciate the sing songy quality of it, but if you really dig into it and listen to the lyrics, you will be amazed a just how deep and sad it is. It tells a pretty amazing story and if you listen closely it has Ohio in it.
Plus, it's Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, so how can you really argue with that?
I don't have a lot else to say about this song, I think it speaks for itself.
While "My City Was Gone" is not my favorite Pretenders song, it's still a good song and I am hesitant to say anything bad about Hynde and crew since they are one of my favorite bands. I was a bit shocked to find out she allowed Rush Limbaugh to use the song for a while, but it was only under the condition that all the proceeds from using it went to animal recuse group PETA. While I know some don't agree with PETA any more than they do with Rush, I still think it's a nice "gotcha" she did.
This song gets right to the punch at the beginning and you don't have to search too hard to find the reference to Ohio.
Finally, I'm going to leave you with the song "Country Girl" by Jim Croce. Croce is a heart breaking story of someone that was taken from us much too soon. I wrote a post about him a while ago when my wife and I got the chance to see his son play at a local venue. This song has a lot of references to Ohio, so you don't have to work too hard to piece this one together either.
Croce is one of the greatest storytellers of his time, and like I said, it would have been exciting to see what he could have done if he hadn't died as young as he did. It's nice that his son got the time with him that he did.
So there you go. Ohio is in the books. I feel like I flew through it much to quickly, but being on the road myself, I am trying to split my attention right now and it is hard.
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Oh The Pretenders yep one of my favourite bands too.
I would love to spend another month in the US even though that is clearly not enough time and would need a good 6 months to travel around as there is too much to see and the various food specialties of all the regions.
Heck, I've lived here my whole life and I still haven't seen everything! Six months would barely scratch the surface!
It's funny how often neighbouring countries or states hate each other. UK and French have this hate love relationship as well
Well, they did have the whole Wars of the Roses and all that for the crown right?
Pretenders is the only musicians on your list today that I have heard of :)
That seems to be a common theme today!
You made it to the Hocking Hills! That's one of my favorite places in Ohio. One of these days I'd love to rent this place.
I just watched a PBS "Columbus Neighborhoods" episode last night and they featured "the oldest buildings still standing" in Ohio. The home of John Putnam, which was built in 1788 is still standing in Marietta and they give tours of it. If I ever find myself down there I'll have to pay it a visit.
Croce is one of my favorites from childhood! I want to learn some of his songs on guitar.
Oh wow, that place is amazing. We stayed at a really nice place that had a pool, hot tub, and enough room for about 18 of us. It was a blast! We took so many hikes when we were down there, but there are still a lot of areas we missed. I think my father in law wants us all to go back one day.
That looks like a fun place to visit and check out, and I can't resist good food. I'll have to add Ohio to the list. 😁
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There is really a ton of awesome stuff around there. Just stay away from the western side of the state. That's all pretty flat and blah.
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