Each month, Our State senior editor — and resident soundtrack maker — Mark Kemp, a former music editor of Rolling Stone, curates a one-of-a-kind Spotify playlist featuring North Carolina songs and musicians.
Here in North Carolina, when we sing about food, a couple of recurring themes come up — cornbread and collard greens. Both play a big role in several of the 20 songs here by North Carolina artists about the food that we Southerners love.
The Durham trio The Carolina Chocolate Drops (who even named themselves for a food item) sing about cornbread and butter beans, while R&B singers Anthony Hamilton of Charlotte and Fantasia Barrino of High Point both sing about cornbread and collard greens; blues man Sonny Terry of Greensboro sings about cornbread, peas, and black molasses; and Johnston County blues singer Algia Mae Hinton tells you to cook cornbread for your husband.
But those aren’t the only items on our menu: One-time Chapel Hill resident James Taylor sings about sweet potato pie in one song and chili dogs in another, the Chapel Hill band Southern Culture on the Skids sings about fried chicken, and funk man George Clinton of Kannapolis considers whether fries go with a shake.
Speaking of drinks, Gaston County singer Sunny Ledfurd suggests that everything should be washed down with a bottle of Cheerwine, of course, although Joe Thompson of Mebane prefers good old corn liquor.
And what’s for dessert? Aside from Taylor’s sweet potato pie, we have Tryon legend Nina Simone letting us know that she likes a little sugar in her bowl, and Winston-Salem’s George Hamilton IV making up with his girlfriend by sending her a rose and a Baby Ruth.
In the old days, artists like Flatt and Scruggs (whose Scruggs was from Flint Hill) performed radio shows in which they were required to promote food products like Martha White flour in the form of jingles. In the version on this playlist, the famous bluegrass duo played their Martha White jingle live after it got so popular on radio that people were requesting it at their concerts.
Oh, and about North Carolina’s most famous food item? Yeah, we’ve got barbecue covered, too — by the comedy duo Rhett and Link, who first met and began performing during elementary school in Buies Creek. Their verdict: Well, North Carolina barbecue is the best, of course.
North Carolina is known for many things, but nothing more important this week than the qualities of endurance, resilience, and hope.
By day, this adventure park in the Triad is a fall festival to die for. By night, the undead come alive for Halloween tricks. Welcome to one man’s vision of year-round merrymaking.
North Carolina’s border dances across the mountains as it traces four different states. Life here can be more remote, but good neighbors are never far away.
The Blue Ridge Parkway stands out among America’s national parks: Unfurling across six Appalachian mountain chains, it connects dozens of rural communities and binds together generations of families through shared memories.
