Add LeAnn Rimes to the list of country singers who profess to not know where Portland, Maine is.
A new duet version of the song “Portland, Maine” was released Thursday, featuring Rimes singing with Canadian singer-songwriter Donovan Woods. The song first caught people’s attention in Portland when it was released by country star Tim McGraw in 2014, mostly for the lyric:
“Portland, Maine. I don’t know where that is. And I don’t want to know.”
Portland’s mayor at the time, Michael Brennan, even offered to give McGraw a tour of the city. Maine media outlets began trying to find out from McGraw and the songwriters if they actually knew where Portland was and why the city was the subject of such a sad song. The song was written by Woods and Abe Stoklasa.
A few weeks after the song’s release, McGraw felt compelled to call Portland country radio station 99.9 The Wolf and explain that it’s just a song and not to be taken literally. He said the song is about a man so devastated by a breakup that he doesn’t want to know where his ex has fled to, which happens to be Portland, Maine. According to McGraw, Portland was picked because it “just seems to sing really well.”
In announcing the new version on social media this week, Rimes called Woods “one of the sweetest souls out there” and said she couldn’t wait for fans “to hear this beautiful duet.” On his Facebook page a week ago, Woods teased some “Portland, Maine” news, adding humorously, “and it’s not that I figured out where it is.”
Rimes, at least, knows where Maine is. She performed at the Waterville Opera House in April and at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts in Sidney in 2022. Her website doesn’t list any upcoming concerts in Portland, Maine, though Donovan Woods is scheduled to play the other Portland—the one in Oregon—next May.
Currently, Rimes is starring in a new action drama series on ABC called “9-1-1: Nashville,” which debuted October 9. She plays the mother of one of the firefighters.
Maine has shown up in a dozen or two pop songs over the years, but finding specific lyrics or titles referring to Portland, Maine, is tougher. For example, Jackson Browne’s 1977 song “Nothing But Time” has a line about “rolling down on 295 out of Portland, Maine” on a tour bus. Boston-based J. Geils Band released a spoken-word piece in 1980 called “No Anchovies, Please,” which begins with the line, “This is the story of a young couple in Portland, Maine.”
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/17/leann-rimes-sings-about-portland-maine-in-new-duet/
