Smitten with the Mitten
This one almost slipped past me believe it or not. You might think given the fact that I live in Michigan I would be waiting with bated breath for my hope state to come up in my weekly musical road trip for #threetunetuesdasy sponsored by @ablaze. Unfortunately, I failed miserably, and it wasn't until just yesterday that I get to highlight three songs with Michigan in the title or lyrics today.
I've lived in Michigan all my life. It's a pretty awesome state. Although I have visited about half the US, I still think there is something really special about Michigan. It probably has a lot to do with the Great Lakes. I sometimes find myself sitting and wondering what made my ancestors settle in the "Mitten State" (if you know, you know, if you don't, look at a map). What cosmic string of events had to land so perfectly that I would be lucky enough to grow up in Michigan.
Thankfully, I grew up in a family that loved to explore. We spent our youth camping and going on day trips to pretty much every corner of the state. Now that I am married, @mrsbozz and I continue that tradition and believe it or not, we keep finding new and exciting places within the borders of our state, even to this day.
You'd probably think I know every song with the word Michigan in the title or lyrics, but that actually isn't true.
I thought about including our state song in this post, but honestly, it's kind of lame. I think it's basically just "Oh Christmas Tree", but instead they say "Oh Michigan" and change some of the other words too. At least that's what I remember from grade school. I'm sure if you are really curious you can look it up online.
As I mentioned before, the Great Lakes are probably the most prominent feature of Michigan. The fact that we are surrounded by some of the biggest stores of freshwater in the world is pretty amazing.
Honestly, I think the hardest part of this post was picking just a handful of pictures to share with you. I have so many amazing ones from Michigan. The natural beauty of the state makes it pretty easy to capture a good one. I'm not kidding you could totally accidentally take the most amazing picture of your life in Michigan. It's just that special.
Alright, you came here for music, so let me get to it.
Lefty Frizzell is one of the lesser know country artists from back in the day, but he had some good songs that you should really dive into sometime when you get a chance. "Saginaw, Michigan" is one of those. You might think it's funny that he had to specify Michigan in the title since "Saginaw" seems to be such a unique word, but believe it or not, there is actually a Saginaw down in Texas too I think. Along with a Midland, and a few other cities that you also find up in Michigan.
Now, I didn't grow up in Saginaw, Michigan, but I did grow up about twenty minutes away from Michigan. My dad work for Saginaw Steering Gear as a General Motors autoworker. We used to go to Saginaw to get our groceries on Friday nights because the prices were much cheaper than Midland which was about ten minutes closer.
Oddly enough, the lyrics are kind of wrong in this song. Saginaw Michigan doesn't actually sit on the Saginaw Bay. That honor is reserved for the town of Bay City where @mrsbozz grew up and where the two of us lived for a time when we were first married. Saginaw actually sits a few miles up the Saginaw River from the Bay, so I don't really know what area Lefty was referring to here in the song.
As for fishing, he did get that part right. There is a huge fishing culture in Michigan given the proximity to the Great Lakes.
I'm not really sure why Saginaw gets so much love in music, but even Simon and Garfunkel refer to it in their song "America". Even when I was a kid, there were parts of Saginaw that you just didn't want to visit or get stuck in late at night. It was pretty much anything on the East Side of the Saginaw River. Today, it is probably somewhat worse. Unfortunately, the gang violence and poverty has worked its way up from Detroit to Flint and then further north to Saginaw.
There has been a concerted effort over the years to revitalize the city of Saginaw, but for the most part I don't feel it has succeeded. We still live pretty close to Saginaw and we visit there quite frequently, though we usually stay on the West side of the river. There are some areas just across the river that house a couple of our favorite concert venues.
In the end, Saginaw probably isn't the first town I would recommend you visit if you ever find your way to Michigan. It's part of my history though, so it's kind of cool that there are so many songs that reference it.
Ever since high school band, I have been enamored with big band music. I'd like to say it didn't have anything to do with a girl, but I think I would be lying. Honestly, at my age, I don't quite remember now. I do remember as part of band class we had to watch the Glenn Miller Story and though it is tragic, you can not deny that his music was absolutely iconic. In fact, I think have no less than ten different Glenn Miller or big band CD's in my collection that are close to being worn out I played them so much when I was younger.
"I've Got A Gal In Kalamazoo" fits the bill for this post and it's honestly such a good song. I know pretty much all the words to it because it just swings so hard. Kalamazoo Michigan is home of Western Michigan University where my sister in law and brother in law attended university and met each other.
It's a pretty cool town and though I haven't spent a lot of time in Kalamazoo (it's across the state), I have hung out there a few times. Anyway, this is getting long, so I will wrap it up. There are your three songs for Michigan, another state down, 27 more to go or something like that.
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