Los Angeles- based musician Andrew Lynch has given us his “Top Ten Songs About Places.” The mix features tunes by Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Buck Owens, Bob Dylan and more. You can catch Andrew Lynch tonight at the Bootleg Theater alongside Samuel Stewart, The Coals and the Eleni Mandell Jazz Combo. For more information about the show, click here. Check out the mixtape after the jump.

Top Ten Songs About Places:

1. Johnny Cash- When It’s Springtime In Alaska (It’s 40 Below)
I was born and raised in a small town in Alaska, so I naturally find this tale of cheating and cold weather love comical.  It was never 40 below where I lived, but it might as well have been.

2. Neil Young- Albuquerque
When I was 2 years old, my parents moved to Albuquerque for a very short period of time, before heading back to Alaska.  Though I’ve been back a few times, I don’t remember too well.  This song makes me try so hard to remember anything; I can’t.

3. John Denver- Rocky Mountain High
My father grew up in and around the Denver area.  To this day he is a staunch proponent of the clean, crisp mountain air, and a lover of the Rocky Mountains.  Also, when my parents used to play John Denver records I would run out of the room crying.  Funny stuff.

4. Bob Dylan- Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
My grandfather was from Tennessee and he spent some time in Alabama working in the oil fields.  His southern accent always charmed me and I think of him every time I hear this song.

5. Merle Haggard- Okie From Muskogee
My grandmother grew up in Oklahoma and her family migrated West during the dust bowl.  She was truly an Okie.  Years later, while working as a waitress in the family restaurant in Bakersfield, she became friendly with Merle Haggard.  She was a fantastic storyteller, so who knows if the story is true, but she was definitely an Okie from Muskogee.

6. Buck Owens- Streets of Bakersfield
While my father was working at a chemical plant in Alaska, he was working around asbestos and his mask failed… damaging his lungs and making imminent our move out of the cold weather.  We landed in Bakersfield, where my mother’s family lived and where I eventually went to high school.  This song always makes me laugh.

7. Otis Redding- Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay
To escape Bakersfield, my family moved up to the Bay Area when I was finished with high school.  I went to art school in San Francisco and really fell in love with the City by the Bay.  I am still obsessed with its architecture and landmarks:  the TransAmerican Pyramid, Alcatraz Island, and the Golden Gate Bridge.  A lot of visual stimulation.

8. Randy Newman- I Love L.A.
It may sound corny, but I will never forget my first memory of L.A.—I was an Alaskan kid on family vacation who stepped outside of LAX one March to find palm trees and weather as warm as our typical summer day.  I decided at that moment that I had to live in such a place, and here I am, many years later.

9. Neil Young- L.A.
The cynical side of L.A. is important.  It keeps a lot of people on edge, burned out, and always striving to create the next thing.  I think it’s this jaded energy that fuels many new creative waves… definitely not a bad thing.

10. Louis Armstrong- When The Saints Go Marching In
I’ve never lived in New Orleans.  My grandfather went there on a business trip and mailed me a cassette of this song.  I was still in Alaska and had just begun studying trumpet, so it blew my mind.  That was my introduction to jazz.  Years later I finally saw the Big Easy and was in awe.  What a lovely place.