Nothing makes me happier than finding a reference to Michigan hidden in a song that I'm listening to. I cheered when Lainey Wilson said she wanted to drive to Kalamazoo in "4x4xU", I was ecstatic recently when I heard Mike Posner reference taking someone back to his home state of Michigan in his latest single "Is it Just Me?".

But one Michigan reference has been bothering me, only because it's so specific. And that's the location of the place that Ryan Hurd was staying in his song, "Michigan For The Winter".

MORE: See a full list of songs that mention Michigan below ⬇️

During the song, Hurd starts of saying that now that the seasons have changed, he needs a change of scenery. Both insulating that he wants to visit his home state to enjoy our beautiful seasons, as well as signaling that he's entering a new season of his life, and he just needs to get out of town.

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However, halfway through the song he mentions that if "she" wants to find him, all they have to do is go to a specific place he frequently goes to escape. "46th Street, that first right turn, down a dirt road watching that wood stove burn"

Now, there are several options for 46th Street in Michigan so that might be a little difficult to narrow it down, but lyrics later in the song help us narrow it down. He writes, "This seven-hour long empty rear-view drive, Isn't what I want, but I guess it's time". And while he doesn't specify where he is starting from, most country songs are assumed to be in Nashville, so let's just start there.

Once I dug deeper, I realized there was only one place that it could be. If you factor in the fact that Ryan Hurd is originally from Kalamazoo, you can assume he might be wintering near his hometown. And, there is one specific 46th street in the area that matches the description perfectly...

That would be 46th street in Paw Paw, just east of Kalamazoo. As you can see in the map below, if you were headed from Nashville, you would eventually come to I-94 and get off at Exit 56, head north until you hit 374, then once you took that east bound, you'd arrive at a right hand turn onto 46th street, which is a basically dead end road with a house on a dirt road.

And when you put this address into google maps from Nashville, you'll get an estimated driving time of: 7 hours, just like the song.

Pretty cool, right? While lots of songs you hear on the radio are written about fictional places, it seems Ryan Hurd did need to get out and stretch his legs in his hometown when he wrote this song.

Songs That Mention Michigan

We've put together a list of 50 songs that mention Michigan. Take a look and see how many you've heard! If you've heard all 50, congratulations, you're a true Michigander.

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