Maryland, Maryland, what are we to do with you?
There are plenty of non-terrible songs for the state. Lyle Lovett, Randy Newman, Stephen Malkmus, The Jayhawks, Gram Parsons…all have perfectly fine entries. But none of them sing to me. Dylan’s got his “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” which is important stuff, but…just doesn’t have much of a melody. And a weaker man might just go with “Hungry Heart” but ‘got a wife and kid in Baltimore, Jack’ just isn’t enough for me to hang my hat on here. And I guess I could just roll with The Mountain Goats again, since “Going to Maryland” is a perfectly nice little song.
But instead of any of those, I’m going to pick Tim Hardin. Because good god could Tim Hardin write himself a song, and I feel like people don’t pay him nearly enough attention. I like his original the best, but there’s some good covers by Joan Baez and Johnny Cash, if that’s more your speed.
Footnote: I learned something pretty exciting while I was researching: the very first song Tori Amos ever wrote was called Baltimore, and It. Is. Amazing. Seriously, go listen, and then marvel that the same person was later responsible for Little Earthquakes.