VALDOSTA — Valdosta has connections with a few famous singers and songs. Today, The Valdosta Daily Times looks at a few.

RHETT AKINS. He’s still performing country hits like “That Ain’t My Truck,” but he’s placed an emphasis on writing songs with Brooks & Dunn, Montgomery Gentry, Blake Shelton and more performing his tunes. Akins is from Lowndes County. He attended Lowndes High School, and he has family still here.

BILL ANDERSON. Known as Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, this singer has never lived in Valdosta, but he reportedly made plenty of visits when his daughter lived here as his son-in-law served at Moody Air Force Base. Anderson is best known for songs like “Still,” “I Get the Fever,” “For Loving You,” “My Life (Throw It Away If I Want To),” “World of Make Believe,” “Sometimes,” “I Can’t Wait Any Longer.” He wrote a song about how city folks think all small-town folks live in horse-and-buggy towns; he set the song in Valdosta, and even called it “Valdosta, Georgia.”

CHARLIE DANIELS. This one came as a surprise several years ago. The man behind “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was once a regular favorite at Wild Adventures for many years. And though Charlie Daniels probably doesn’t need to do any advance press for his shows, he regularly allowed pre-show interviews. During a phone conversation with The Valdosta Daily Times, after he’d played several Valdosta shows, Daniels dropped the bombshell that he’d spent part of his childhood in Valdosta. “We moved there (Valdosta) at the end of the second World War,” Daniels said. “My dad got a job there, and we stayed at the Daniel Ashley Hotel because there was a housing shortage at the time. I remember it well because the day we arrived, World War II ended and everyone was in the streets.” Daniels was born Charles E. Daniels on Oct. 28, 1936, the son of William Carlton Daniels and LaRue Hammonds Daniels. William Daniels was in the timber industry, often referred to as a lumberjack, which would make him right at home in the timberlands of South Georgia.

KENNY ROGERS. This country-pop superstar isn’t from Valdosta, but his wife, Wanda, is from Lowndes County. Rogers has performed his hits, like “The Gambler,” “Lady” and more, a few times at Wild Adventures and displayed his photographs in an exhibit at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts. But he still quietly comes to town to visit his wife’s relatives in South Georgia.

BILLY JOE ROYAL. The singer who rose to fame with 1960s songs like “Down in the Boondocks,” “I Knew You When,” “Hush,” and “Cherry Hill Park” was born in Valdosta and raised in Marietta. In the 1980s, he made a country comeback with songs like “Tell It Like It Is.” He has relatives who still live in South Georgia.

MICKEY THOMAS. The lead singer of Starship has Valdosta roots. Mickey Thomas took over the lead-singer spot for what had once been Jefferson Starship after being Jefferson Airplane. With Thomas as lead singer, the band had some of its biggest hits such as “Jane,” “We Built This City,” “No Way Out” and “Sara.”