"Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ

“Take Me Home, Country Roads” is considered a country song that is performed by John Denver, Bill Danoff, and Taffy Nivert. It was included in their album “Poems, Prayers, and Promises” that was released in 1971. The Album soon became #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song is slightly upbeat and the singer has a soothing voice that is almost nostalgic. The song is about a man who sings about how he’s been far from his home in West Virginia, and how he needs for the Country roads to take him “to the place where [he] belong[s].” This song has received great attention from West Virginians, and has been played at every home football pre-game show at West Virginia University since 1972.

This song is important to me because, although I am not originally from West Virginia, I connect it to my home in North Carolina. I consider myself to be living in “the South” and this song helps me to remember my origins and where I grew up. I love North Carolina, its mountains, its plains, and its beaches and its history, so I am able to identify with the song as it describes, “Almost heaven, West Virgina/Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River/ Life is old there, older than the trees/ Younger than the mountains, flowing like the breeze." I also appreciate the “country” genre aspects of this song. I really enjoy many different types of music, but I personally identify with country music because of where I grew up.