Last week, we remembered the late Toots Hibbert, recalling his noteworthy reggae adaptation of John Denver’s classic “Take Me Home Country Roads” (Almost heaven, West Jamaica…) Hibbert’s version got us thinking about the original.

Released in 1971, Take Me Home (also commonly called Country Roads) reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart, a country song that easily transcended folk and pop boundaries and which became not only the American singer-songwriter’s signature song, but a tune considered by many to be one of the best of all time.

Co-written by Denver, the song has also been covered dozens (hundreds?) of times, from Olivia Newton-John to Ray Charles and from rock to punk renditions; as well as in Japanese, the aforementioned Jamaican, and a sublime Hawaiian take by Iz Kamakawiwo’ole. (As an aside, I once met Denver in Hawaii – he and his two kids were stuck beside me in a line-up at Kona airport; nice guy!)

With the trademark intro, “Almost heaven, West Virginia,” and universally singable chorus, “Country roads, take me home/ To the place I belong/ West Virginia, mountain mama/ Take me home, country roads,” the song has also become a tourism anthem for the US state and was officially recognized as a state song in 2014. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

This performance comes from Denver’s The Wildlife Concert TV special in 1995 (now a PBS staple), just two years before his tragic death in a crash while piloting his own plane in California.
– Mike

(Ed note: Jen admits this is one of her favourites and a song she sings religiously – in full voice – twice a year while driving through West Virginia. We suggest you stick to the Denver version!)

Lyrics

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gather ’round her
Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice in the mornin’ hour, she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin’ down the road, I get a feelin’
That I should’ve been home…