Photo of Charleston, W.Va. by Douglas Imbrogno. Click to enlarge.
LISTEN: “Little Bitty City”

As FestivALL Charleston approaches, here is an appropriate “Song of the Day” (or “Song of the Festival”). It’s a tune about Charleston called “Little Bitty City,” by “Mountain Stage” guitarist and W.Va. Music Hall of Fame founder (and gazz contributor) Michael Lipton.

Mark Ferrell, who works in Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s office, came up with the title late one night and it took Lipton several years to build a song around it. Says Lipton: “Lately, I’ve been really loving Charleston and I wanted to write a (hopefully) fun song about it.” The song features Charlie T on lead vocals, Lipton on guitar, Jupie Little on drums, Ted Harrison on bass and Don Dixon on guitar solo, keyboard and trombone, with backing vocals by Lipton, Little and Bill Kimmons.

Here are the lyrics:

“Little Bitty City”

by Michael Lipton

it runs on oil, gas and coal

that’s how the folks on the hill made their dough

there’s lawyers a plenty and churches too

and even though it’s small there’s always plenty to do…

We’re living in a little city… with a great big name

back in the day it was quite a place

I went to frye’s alley to come of age

the press club, sterling and holley hotel

there was music all night… at the crazy horse inn

Livin’ in a little city…. with a great big name

we often get mistaken for a place… down south

they got the money but we’ve got the mountain soul

and gold on the capitol dome

there’s familiar faces everywhere you go

so you better behave or everyone will know

it’s small town livin w a big city beat

and you might see the governor… walking down the street

drivin’ home on I-79

got a tudor’s biscuit weighin’ on my mind

the lights make our little city look so big

And there’s no other place… that feels like home

it’s our little bitty city - with a great big name.

Charleston west virginia - that’s my home.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.