Friday Five: Songs About Fireflies

From Dolly’s “My Tennessee Mountain Home” to Miranda’s “Me and Charlie Talking,” fireflies are used as a signifier of country living and childlike innocence. Summer seems a long way off, but these five songs conjure up memories of countless July nights spent running around clutching a jar full of bugs.

• 5. “Fireflies” – Rhett Miller and Rachel Yamagata

  The Old 97′s frontman teams up with indie darling Yamagata on this vaguely Oedipal song about a failed relationship from The Believer. Miller sings “You look like my mother did when she was 19/Not afraid to die,” to which Rachel Yamagata responds “For the last time, I’m not your mother/And I was only 19, still a firefly.” Too bad fireflies only last for a night when you catch them. Less, if you forget to poke holes in the jar lid.

• 4. “Firefly” – Southern Culture on the Skids

  SCOTS’ Rick Miller sings about the need for fireflies to shine some light on a moonless night…and on the two gals he’s with. This is a song best heard in person, but keep an eye on the stage, lest you get pelted with some fried chicken.

• 3. “Chasing Lightning Bugs” – Gold Heart

  Virginia’s Gold sisters are a delightful up and coming teenage bluegrass act. This tune, from last year’s gem My Sisters and Me, has the girls reminiscing about an idyllic childhood spent barefoot in the backyard. Though they might be a little too young to be singing about life “twenty years ago,” this is a nice bluegrass song with sweet sisterly harmonies.

• 2. “Fireflies” – Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons

  “Fireflies and corn liquor“: two fun uses for mason jars. As a bonus, Stuart throws a hard-luck, redneck woman into the mix on this rockin’ alt-country tune from 2009′s Bend in the Road.

• 1. “Fireflies” – Lori McKenna

  This folky ode to optimism is from McKenna’s 2001 album Pieces of Me. Four years later, Faith Hill recorded a version for her chart topping album Fireflies. Guess there’s something to that whole notion of believing in “fairytales and dreamers’ dreams like bedsheet sails,” especially if it earns you a giant wad of cash.