Launch Recite Me assistive technology

Take a musical journey across the United States with this 1000 song strong map

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Date
2 November 2018
A colourful map of the United States divided into various regions. The title in the bottom right reads “The U.S.A. Song Map”.
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Dorothy: U.S.A. Song Map

A while back now, Walt Whitman claimed to sing himself and celebrate himself. America, that vast, strange nation which gave us both Donald Trump and the sight of Adam Richman gorging himself on oversized hot dogs week in week out on Man vs Food tends to celebrate and sing itself.

Which might be why Dorothy — fresh off the back of their super-sooky set of business cards we covered earlier this week on It’s Nice That — have spent nine months putting together a brand new print which sees America mapped out in its entirety by song.

A follow-up to their globally-minded World Song Map, the released-today U.S.A. Song Map is a dream come true for that music buff in your life who spends a good 64% of their waking hours daydreaming about hotfooting it through the midwest in an old muscle car with a best of Bruce Springsteen cassette for company.

The choices span the obvious – “California Girls”, “Empire State of Mind”, “Straight Outta Compton” to the — to the slightly more obscure — “It’s a Long Way to Daytona” by Mel Tillis, anyone? — and the Dorothy team have even put together a Spotify playlist of the whole lot. It’ll take 61 hours to listen to it all, so it’d be perfect for any road trip you might find yourself on in the near future.

We asked the team at Dorothy to tells which albums they would take with them on a cross-country trip. Zen Arcade by fuzzy-rockers Husker Du made the grade, as did the similarly noisy Pixie’s classic Doolittle. The “lovely, big American barn” sound of Neil Young’s Harvest is joined by country doyenne Emmylou Harris’ Luxury Liner, which Dorothy member Oli describes as “the best American album for any cowboy wannabe like me.”

The print is available now.

An illustration of a colourful map of the US Midwest, where states are labelled with song titles and musical references. Michigan is marked as “Michigan State” and “Detroit, Michigan”, while Wisconsin reads “Oh, Wisconsin!”.
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Dorothy: U.S.A. Song Map

A colourful map of the southern US, with various states shaded in yellow, green and orange. The map is covered in handwritten text, including song titles and phrases such as “Louisiana 1927” and “Battle of New Orleans”.
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Dorothy: U.S.A. Song Map

A close-up of a stylised map of the northwestern US, with states coloured in green, pink and orange. The map is overlaid with various phrases and titles, including “Go West” and “Under the Westway”.
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Dorothy: U.S.A. Song Map

A map of Florida and the surrounding coast, filled with song titles and lyrics instead of city names. Phrases such as “Deep Down in Florida”, “Miami Vice” and “Gator Country” are scattered across the pink landmass.
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Dorothy: U.S.A. Song Map

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About the Author

Josh Baines

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Josh Baines joined It's Nice That from July 2018 to July 2019 as News Editor, covering new high-profile projects, awards announcements, and everything else in between.

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