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This evening, I was listening to an iPhone playlist on shuffle while driving, as I usually do these days, and the Berrymans' song “Your State's Name Here” came on. It is, of course, a funny and stirring paean to whatever state you live in (looks like the Chenille Sisters did a somewhat prettier version of it), and I hadn't heard it in a couple years, so I was pleased.

And then it ended, and the next song was Tommy Makem's “Canada My Own Land,” all about how great Canada and its people are.

I was amused at the coincidence. And then the next song was Judy Small's “Sky of the Southern Cross,” about how nice it is to return home to the southern hemisphere and see the Southern Cross in the sky again:

Some will tell you love of country lies in stemming migrant tides,

Or in strong defense against some foreign foe,

Or that cricket teams and sailing ships are cause for national pride,

But it's never one of these that stirs my soul.

And I started to get really amused. So I started skipping through songs just to see what would come on next. And two of the next four or so were Libera's “Going Home” (about, yes, going home), and the Beatles' “Get Back” (“Get back to where you once belonged”).

I think there were two others somewhere in there that didn't fit the theme, and there was also “Four Strong Winds,” which doesn't exactly fit, although when it started playing I had it confused with “Four Green Fields,” which is about Ireland.

Really, all it needed to complete the set was the Indigo Girls' rendition of “Finlandia,” my favorite patriotic song, which came up in the random mix about a week and a half ago and so couldn't have played tonight (because of the way the mix is constructed).

Of course, it's possible that I have a lot of songs about love of country and homesickness, and that this is therefore not surprising. But I don't think that's really a major theme in the music I own; not one I've especially noticed before, anyway.