Iowa Boy 

Robbin Ahrold, Billy Seidman

    

Grew up with farmland in my bones

Five miles from town where I called home

Corn ten feet tall in rows we’d roam

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

Loved that big sky when I was young

Big yellow fireball of a sun

The taste of catfish on my tongue

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

Skillet sizzlin’ fat pork chops

At night we’d climb the old hilltop

To hear the cornstalks crack and pop

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

The Mississippi was our pool

We’d fish and swim to keep us cool

It was too hot to go to school

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

 

Sweet smoky leaf fires in the fall

Corn dogs and cider, cm’on y’all

At county fair, hogs in the stall

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

The girls in Oshkosh, oh so fair

On square dance night, love in the air

She kissed me hard, right then and there

So glad I am an Iowa boy!

Come on y’all!

So glad I am an Iowa boy!

 

At midnight hear train whistles blow

A hundred cars of corn to go 

Burlington line to Chicago

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

A little church for Sunday hymns

Where you praise God and love your kin

Pray Hawkeye football gets the win

So glad I’m an Iowa boy!

And at the school house every grade

Was taught hard work is how it’s made

And help your neighbor, come what may

So glad I’m an Iowa Boy, 

So glad I’m an Iowa Boy, 

So glad I’m an Iowa Boy Ya-Ha!

 

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About the song

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Here are the sights and sounds that defined growing up for generations of Midwesterners. . .and still do! In this case, a picture of childhood in Burlington, Iowa, a small town on the Mississippi river, surrounded by farm country as far as eye could see. Fishing, swimming, county fairs, and sitting on a hilltop where you could see a train loaded with corn and soybeans so long it stretched from horizon to horizon.

 

Credits

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Music and Lyrics by Robbin Ahrold and Billy Seidman. Instrumental track by Billy Seidman, drums by Paul Skorten, recorded at SongArts Studios, New York City, 2018, and vocals by Robbin Ahrold, recorded at Recording Arts Studios, Arlington, Virginia, 2019. 

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© Little Nest of Robbin Songs (BMI), Pleasurecraft Music Publishing (BMI)