Country Roads

Thoughts From the Front Portch

On the front porch in Georgia, I’m reflecting on the touching moment during the Super Bowl last week when the crowd began to sing along with John Denver on a song near and dear to my heart, “Country Roads.”

You see, when you are born and raised in West Virginia, you have an innate pride that goes with you wherever you are.

It was a real surprise when the Super Bowl crowd sang along, “Country Roads, take me home, West Virginia.”

The sing-along was apparently part of the advertising deal Rocket Mortgage cut associated with its $8 million dollar commercial featuring the song.

People all across America, and even in places around the world, love to sing the song that was written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert and sang first by John Denver. It’s spiritual to West Virginians.

Some have tried to say the song was really written about western Virginia, since both the Shenandoah River and the Blue Ridge Mountains are principally in western Virginia. But, both the river and the mountain range touch the Mountain State as well.

The song has another NFL connection. It is sung at NFL games played in Germany, of all places. The easy-to-sing song was first part of the Seahawks/Buccaneers game in Munich in 2022. When the league came back in 2023 and so did “Country Roads.” With Germany being a permanent stop for the NFL, it’s likely to continue to ring out in the German stadium. The song is often a sing-along at the Oktoberfests in Germany.

Writer Danoff was asked why Germans would be so attracted to the song and he replied that he didn’t know, because he had never been to Germany. He had never been to West Virginia either, before he helped write the song.

Nivert and Danoff were on their way to a family reunion in Maryland when they came up with lyrics for the song. Danoff said they didn’t know much about West Virginia so they went to a dictionary and the first thing it said was Rhododendron was the state flower. He said Nivert tried her best to work Rhodendron into the song, but she just couldn’t do it.

That statement proves the song was not about western Virginia. Virginia’s state flower is the flowering dogwood.

The writers said they were inspired by the feeling of familiarity they experienced while driving on a country Road. Danoff also said he was influenced by his childhood memories in Springfield, Mass., of listening to the Saturday Night Jamboree on Wheeling’s WWVA, a 50-thousand watt station.

Danoff and Nivert thought Johnny Cash would be right for the song, but they later played the song for Denver at a jam session and he immediately wanted to record it.

A few months before Denver was introduced to the song, Denver had performed at Concord College in Athens, W.Va. He and his bandmates had flown into Roanoke, Va., and they had to drive to Athens via Route 460. Upon their arrival, the first thing they talked about with their greeters was how winding and curvy the roads were. The trip to Concord College gave them an appreciation of the beauty of West Virginia, so when he heard Danoff and Nevert’s song, he was immediately a fan.

On March 8, 2014 “Take Me Home, Country Roads: became the official anthem for the State of West Virginia.

In the fall of 1980, Denver went to Morgantown to sing “Country Roads” to a packed crowd of 70,000 in the brand new Mountaineer field. After Denver’s arrival by State Police helicopter, the crowd erupted as the PA announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Denver.”

The song is sung after every Mountaineer victory.

Thanks for reading and listening. Your comments would make this post much better.

Or you could buy me a cup of coffee here. Porch sittin’ is better with a beverage.