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Kentucky Music Issue CD Track List

Issue 99, Winter 2017

Sleeve artwork by Bruce New

Now in its 19th year, the Oxford American’s annual Southern music issue has long held special meaning for our readers, many of whom collect it, eagerly anticipate it, and enthusiastically tell us what we get right (and wrong) every year. In 2017, we’re featuring the music of Kentucky, highlighting some of the Commonwealth’s most enduring legends and local favorites while celebrating overlooked and lesser known musicians. With contributions from Sturgill Simpson, James Lindsey, Bill Monroe, Julia Perry, King Kong, and Loretta Lynn, this 27-track compilation includes songs from 1927 to the present, with two extra bonus tracks on our first ever digital download.

View the Kentucky music issue’s table of contents.

Order the Kentucky music issue & CD. 


  1. Be Proud of the Gray in Your Hair
    Dave Evans

  2. Sea Stories
    Sturgill Simpson

  3. Can I Say It Again
    Soul Walkers

  4. By the Ohio
    Joan Shelley

  5. Rainbows
    James Lindsey FEAT. Cicily Bullard

  6. Beacon
    Matt Duncan

  7. It’s Me Not You
    The Torques

  8. Me Hungry
    King Kong 

  9. My Old Drunk Friend
    Freakwater

  10. Camp Nelson Blues
    Booker Orchestra

  11. I’m Going to Organize, Baby Mine
    Sarah Ogan Gunning

  12. Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek
    Brett Ratliff

  13. Women’s Prison
    Loretta Lynn

  14. Shady Grove
    Jean Ritchie

  15. Down to the Bone
    Legendary Shack Shakers

  16. Rich Wife Full of Happiness
    Bonnie “Prince” Billy

  17. Forsaken Lover
    The Phipps Family

  18. I’m a Poor Li’l Orphan in this Worl’
    Julia Perry (Performed by Shirley Verrett) 

  19. Some Dark Holler
    Dwight Yoakam FEAT. the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

  20. It Never Stopped in in My Home Town
    Les McCann

  21. Blind
    Pleasure Unit

  22. Wondrous Love
    Pine Mountain Girls’ Octet

  23. Pretty Polly
    Locust Grove Octet

  24. Cancion Mixteca
    Harry Dean Stanton

  25. Eights
    Rachel Grimes

  26. Love is Strange (Live)
    The Everly Brothers

  27. Y’All Come
    Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys

BONUS TRACKS

All By Myself
Kelsey Waldon

A Few More Miles
Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore


Order the Oxford American’s Kentucky Music Issue & CD today!





Oxford American

From the editors of the Oxford American.