Better story teller than Edmund Fitzgerald?

Aw geez @viridian, why didn’t "TNTDODD" come to mind! Robbie Robertson says he wrote the song for Levon, using all the stories about the South that Helm had been telling the other members of The Hawks/The Band over the years. They were all Canadian, Levon being born and raised in Arkansas. Gee, I wonder if casting The Confederacy in a positive light would be allowed now? ;-)

Another good songwriter who has written about the South is Randy Newman. In fact his Good Old Boys is a "theme" album (I prefer that term to "concept"), all the songs relating to the South in one way or another. "Kingfish" and "Every Man A King" might qualify for the topic of this thread.

Rodney Crowell wrote a great song that recounts his hearing of "Ring Of Fire" on the radio while driving in the car with his pa one night. It’s entitled "I Walk The Line Revisited", revisited because Johnny Cash appears on the recording of the song, which can be found on Rodney’s astoundingly great album The Houston Kid.

"Strange Fruit". Written by Abel Meeropol, sung by Billie Holiday.

Bob Dylan wrote a lot, among them "The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll", "Oxford Town", "Hurricane", and "The Death Of Emmitt Till".

All the above are related to the lingering (to this day) racism in The United States Of America, following the end of slavery, our original sin. And all are stories about African-Americans murdered (with the exception of "Hurricane") at the hands of white Americans.

A great related movie is To Kill A Mockingbird, a film I first saw as a child. It had a profound effect on me, and remains a favorite of mine.