A quick search for footage from Pam Tillis Appearance with her father Mel TillisShe turned up this clip that unites young Pam with two teams Country Music Hall of Famers with talented families: her father and Bobby Bare.
The trio will perform “Detroit City,” a Mel Tillis co-writer with Danny Dill. Billy Grammer first popularized the song, which was originally titled “I Wanna Go Home,” in 1963. In the same year, it became Bares first top 10 country hit on the way to his only Grammy win (Best Country & Western Recording).
In the liner notes for the CD set Country Classical Music: A Smithsonian Collection, Historian Bill C. Malone wrote that the song “describes the alienation felt by many rural southerners in the central north” after moving for factory jobs.
Other state laws, such as Charley pride and Dolly Parton, tipped one of Mel’s lyrical masterpieces by cutting her own versions of “Detroit City”.
The country standard later became the popular crooner material for Tom Jones (a top 10 hit in the UK in 1967) and Dean Martin (a top 40 contemporary adult entry in 1970).
Read more: Kelly Clarkson Performs “The Dance” for Garth Brooks at the Kennedy Center Honors 2021
This particular performance stands out in part because it reminds us that both Bare and the older Tillis weren’t just gifted country singers and witty pranksters. Both had a hard-to-describe “it factor” that increased their skills every time they stood in front of the camera.
Pam’s contribution makes this a fun flashback before she became a hit maker herself: a run that started with “Don’t Tell Me What to Do” from the 1990s.
Lyrics of “Detroit City”
I wanna go home, I wanna go home
Oh how I wanna go home
I went to sleep in Detroit City last night
And I dreamed of these cotton fields and home
I dreamed of my dear mother, old papa, sister and brother
I dreamed of this girl who waited so long
I wanna go home, I wanna go home, oh how I wanna go home
Homefolks think I grew up in Detroit City
From the letters I write, they think I’m fine
But during the day I do the cars, at night I do the bars
If only they could read between the lines
Because you know I took the freight train north to Detroit City
And after all these years I find that I was just wasting my time
So I just think I’ll take my stupid pride
And put it on a cargo and head south
And go back to the loved ones, the ones I’ve left so far behind
I wanna go home, I wanna go home
Oh how I wanna go home …
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