Down In Mississippi (Up To No Good)

Album: Twice the Speed of Life (2004)
Charted: 101
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is about a woman who can't stand her mundane, unappreciated, predictable life, so she makes a run for it, going down to Mississippi where she is up to no good. No more doing dishes and washing clothes; she's going to hit the casino with her friends.
  • This is a track from Sugarland's debut album, Twice The Speed Of Life. At the time, they were a trio of Kristen Hall, Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles; Hall left the group after the album was released.
  • In a Songfacts interview with Kristian Bush, he told the story behind this song. "It was the very beginning of Sugarland. We were trying to figure out what a country song was. My history of country music was pretty deep, but my ability to be current and understand the '90s and early 2000s country music was not very deep at all. I had been in a different genre. And my gateway drug was Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball. I said, 'That's like a Daniel Lanois record... holy smokes! If that's country music, I can do this.'

    And then I heard a Steve Earle record, and I was also blown away. And then a couple of Dixie Chicks records. I was like, 'Wow. This is not what people think it is. This is incredibly well-crafted, emotional. Songs that will stand the test of time.'

    And as I was trying to get at those, we were coming up with, 'What a clever thing to say - 'down in Mississippi and up to no good.'' We wrote it about - literally - a girls' weekend, because they had just started to have float barges on the Mississippi and put casinos on them. It was a thing that people did, but they didn't really tell each other that they did it. It was maybe in your mind what the southern version of going to Las Vegas is. I thought that was fun, and it was also a crazy country-tempo song."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Andrew Farriss of INXS

Andrew Farriss of INXSSongwriter Interviews

Andrew Farriss on writing with Michael Hutchence, the stories behind "Mystify" and other INXS hits, and his country-flavored debut solo album.

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino EditionMusic Quiz

Whether he's splitting ears or burning Nazis, Quentin Tarantino uses memorable music in his films. See if you can match the song to the scene.

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)Songwriter Interviews

Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.

Donald Fagen

Donald FagenSongwriter Interviews

Fagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.

Soul Train Stories with Stephen McMillian

Soul Train Stories with Stephen McMillianSong Writing

A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.