Back Home Again in Indiana

(Back Home Again in) Indiana is a song composed by Ballard MacDonald and James Hanley in 1917. While it is not the official state song of the U.S. state of Indiana (that honor belongs to On the Banks of the Wabash), it is perhaps the best-known song that pays tribute to the Hoosier State.

Origin and influence

The tune was introduced as a Tin Pan Alley pop-song of the time. It contains a musical quotation from the already well known On the Banks of the Wabash, as well as repetition of some key words and phrases from the lyrics of the latter: moonlight, candlelight, fields, new-mown hay, sycamores, and of course the Wabash river.

In 1934, Joe Young, Jean Schwartz, and Joe Ager wrote In a Little Red Barn (on a Farm down in Indiana), which not only incorporated all the same key words and phrases above, but whose chorus had the same harmonic structure as Indiana. In this respect it was a contrafact of the latter (see "A jazz standard" below).

| I | VI7 | II7 | II7 | V7 | V7 | I | I7 |
| IV | iv | I | I | II7 | II7 | V7 | V7 |
| I | VI7 | II7 | II7 | V7 | III7 | vi | vi |
| I | III7 | vi | II7 | I VI7 | II7 V7 | I | I |

A jazz standard

In 1917 it was one of the current pop tunes selected by Columbia Records to be recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band; this lively instrumental version was one of the earliest jazz records issued and sold well. The tune became a jazz standard. For years, Louis Armstrong and his All Stars would open each public performance with the number.

Its chord changes are undergird the Charlie Parker/Miles Davis bop composition Donna Lee, one of jazz's best known contrafacts (a composition that overlays a new melody over an existing harmonic structure).

An Indiana signature

Since 1946, it has been an annual tradition for the song to be performed at the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. In most years since 1972, it has been sung by actor and singer Jim Nabors with backing from the Purdue Marching Band. It is usually performed immediately following The Star-Spangled Banner, and the rendering of Taps. The song is accompanied by a large balloon release.

The song is also featured prominently at the Indiana State Museum where a steam clock plays the tune at the top of every hour. [1]

Since 1991 Indianapolis TV station WISH-TV used components of the song in their news themes; and since 1997 Fort Wayne TV station WANE-TV (WISH-TV's sister station owned by LIN TV) has also used components of the song in their news themes. Stephen Arnold Music's Newsleader and "Counterpoint with Indiana" (aka WISH-TV News Music Package) and 615 Music's "In-Sink V.4" (aka "In-Sink with Indiana") are news music themes that have the "Back Home Again in Indiana" Signature.

Lyrics

First verse

I have always been a wand'rer

Over land and sea

Yet a moonbeam on the water

Casts a spell o'er me

A vision fair I see

Again I seem to be

Chorus

Back home again in Indiana,

And it seems that I can see

The gleaming candlelight, still shining bright,

Through the sycamores for me.

The new-mown hay sends off its fragrance

Through the fields I used to roam.

When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,

How I long for my Indiana home.

Second verse

Fancy paints on mem'ry's canvas

Scenes that we hold dear

We recall them in days after

Clearly they appear

And often times I see

A scene that's dear to me

(repeat chorus)

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