Myla Goldberg, a self-identified and staunch “Yankee,” contributed an essay in State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America that relates, in amusing fashion, how her “incipient sense of state pride” as a grade-school student “was dependent upon Maryland’s Northern-ness.” Maryland’s decision, for instance, to fight for the Union cause, Goldberg reasoned, validated her unquestioned assumption that the Free State had, indeed, “chosen the correct side of history” — in spite of the fact that Maryland, after all, was a slave-holding border state located below the Mason-Dixon line.
Goldberg was forced to confront a much more complicated truth, however, when she tried to get fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Henley, to lead the class in a sing-along of Maryland’s state song. This Confederate marching song and plea for secession (sample lyric: “Maryland! She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb. Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum”), was written, Goldberg would later learn, in violent response to the sight of Federal troops disembarking in Baltimore en route to protect the nation’s capital, i.e., The Baltimore Riot of 1861. Myla would eventually figure out why Mrs. Henley had failed to honor her request.
I, too, went through a similar psychological journey and process of “civil re-education” after my move to Maryland in 1992, as I tried to make sense of the state’s history. Baltimore’s mayor (I was late to learn) – along with the city’s council, police chief & entire police board – were all imprisoned in Fort McHenry during the Civil War due to their Confederate sympathies. The plot to kill newly-elected President Lincoln on his railway journey from Springfield to Washington in 1861, I discovered thanks to Smithsonian Magazine’s special report in 2013, would be foiled by detective Allan Pinkerton in Baltimore, a hotbed of anti-Northern sentiment at the time.
But Baltimore’s big-city charm and strong industrial past obscure its Southern heritage — at least to relative newcomers such as myself, who commuted there for a number of years. Charm City also has a vital arts scene, as evidenced by its annual Artscape festival, quirky Visionary Arts Museum, prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art, renowned music conservatory, the Peabody Institute – and John Waters.
Most interestingly, Baltimore – like Cincinnati – would inspire a surprisingly vast number of songs that bear the city’s name in their song titles — thousands of thanks to the esteemed music writer Geoffrey Himes for his invaluable assistance with the research:
- “Baltimore Bombashay” Percy Wenrich 1909
- “Baltimore Buzz” Noble Sissle & Eubie Blake 1915 -or- 1921
- “Baltimore Blues” Eubie Blake 1919
- “Baltimore MD, You’re the Only Doctor for Me” Arthur Schwartz 1923
- “The Baltimore” Bix Beiderbecke 1927
- “Baltimore” Katherine Henderson 1927
- “Baltimore Fire” Charlie Poole 1929
- “Baltimore Blues” Charlie McCoy 1934
- “Baltimore Oriole” Hoagy Carmichael 1942
- “Baltimore to Washington” Woody Guthrie 1944
- “Back Back Back to Baltimore” Zeb Turner 1951
- “Baltimore Bounce” Al Sears Orchestra 1951
- “Baltimore Rag” Ralph Flanagan Orchestra 1951
- “Baltimore Jones” Chuck Miller 1956
- “Baltimore” The Drifters 1960
- “Please Don’t Go (Back to Baltimore)” Johnny Acey 1960
- “Baltimore Baby” Ron Fury 1960
- “Baltimore Twist and Freeze” Orlie and the Saints 1960
- “Baltimore” Billy Huhn & the Catalinas 1961
- “Baltimore” Sonny James 1964
- “Streets of Baltimore” Bobby Bare 1966
- “Lady Came from Baltimore” Tim Hardin 1967
- “Back from Baltimore” Ronnie Dove 1967
- “Good Luck Baltimore” Buddy Kalb 1968
- “Barefoot in Baltimore” Strawberry Alarm Clock 1968
- “Kitty from Baltimore” The Three Coins 1968
- “Baltimore” Roy Buchanan 1969
- “Keep Baltimore Beautiful” Skeeter Davis 1969
- “You Ain’t Changed a Bit from Baltimore” Jerry Warren 1969
- “No Milk & Honey in Baltimore” Buck Owens & the Buckaroos 1970
- “Lord Baltimore” Mark Richardson (with Curt Boettcher) 1970
- “Tomorrow Night in Baltimore” Waylon Jennings 1970
- “Baltimore Ladies” Mike Corbett 1971
- “Baltimore” Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 1972
- “Lady From Baltimore” Bearfoot 1973
- “Baltimore, You’re Home to Me” Dave Hardin 1974
- “The Last Time I Go to Baltimore” Jackie Christian & Target 1974
- “Take Me to Baltimore” Ruth Copeland 1976
- “Baltimore” Randy Newman 1978
- “Baltimore” Tori Amos 1980
- “The Girl from Baltimore” The Fleshtones 1981
- “The Baltimores” Jonathan Richman 1985
- “Baltimore Clipper” Otis Read 1985
- “Baltimore” Spiral Jetty 1985
- “Port of Baltimore Blues” Gerry Mulligan & Scott Hamilton 1986
- “Baseball in Baltimore” NRBQ 1986
- “What’s New in Baltimore” Frank Zappa 1986
- “From Baltimore to Anywhere” Disappear Fear 1988
- “Bound for Baltimore” Big Al Downing 1990
- “Baltimore Joe” Cruel Shoes 1992
- “Baltimore” Five Chinese Brothers 1992
- “Baltimore” Lyle Lovett 1992
- “Raining in Baltimore” Counting Crows 1993
- “From Baltimore to Paris” Go West 1993
- “Baltimore” Peter Case 1995
- “Baltimore Hotel” Quinine 1995
- “In Praise of the City of Baltimore” Celtic Thunder 1996
- “Heavy Metal’s Alive in Baltimore” The Huntingtons 1996
- “Baltimore Johnny” Del McCoury Band 1996
- “Christmas in Baltimore” Geoffrey Himes 1997
- “The King of Baltimore” Swearing at Motorists 1997
- “Boogie Woogie Baltimore” The Charlie Daniels Band 1997
- “Heaven in Baltimore” Dale Watson 1998
- “Baltimore or Less” Jules Verdone 1998
- “Baltimore” Cleveland Bound Death Sentence 1999
- “Last Train to Baltimore” Elisa Piemer 2000
- “Friends in Baltimore” Carla Olson 2001
- “Baltimore Blues” Legends of Rodeo 2002
- “Another Trip to Baltimore” Neil Perry 2002
- “Good Morning Baltimore” ‘Hairspray’ Soundtrack 2002
- “I’m Leaving Baltimore” K Through 6 2002
- “Baltimore” The Extra Glenns 2002
- “Baltimore Sun” The Jayhawks 2003
- “Baltimore” Meanflower 2003
- “Full Moon in Baltimore” Bobby Smith 2003
- “How I Love Dem Bawlamer Girls” Geoffrey Himes 2003
- “Baltimore Reasons” Arty Hill 2003
- “Ghosts of Baltimore” Liars Academy 2004
- “Baltimore 5” Cul de Sac& Damo Suzuki 2004
- “Back in Baltimore” Danny Bryant 2005
- “Baltimore Skyline” Sue Foley 2005
- “Baltimore Whores” Gavin Friday 2006
- “Baltimore” The Hackensaw Boys 2007
- “Baltimore Blues No. 1” Deer Tick 2007
- “Baltimore” Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks 2008
- “Drunk in Baltimore” Geoffrey Himes 2008
- “Dear Baltimore” Carter’s Chord 2008
- “Baltimore” Caleb & Saleem 2008
- “Baltimore” Tim Easton 2009
- “Baltimore Is the New Brooklyn” JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound 2009
- “Christmas Time in Baltimore” The Starving Artists 2009
- “Christmas in Baltimore” Milkshake 2010
- “Welcome to Smalltimore” Howard Markman 2010
- “Doin’ Time in Baltimore” Caleb Stine 2010
- “Baltimore Knot” Banner Pilot 2010
- “Baltimore” Matthew Sweet 2011
- “Baltimore’s Fireflies” Woodkid 2011
- “For Baltimore” All Time Low 2012
1966 hit originally written for Bobby Bare — and yet this version came out in 1964?
Shore Bird – mascot of Orioles farm team – and yet this is a label from Oklahoma!
Bust of Baltimore-born Zappa at A Local library & Penny shaped into Zappa’s image (from a pressed penny machine at a Maryland state service plaza off interstate 95)