The universal nostalgia for "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
A song about a longing for home, John Denver's first hit in 1971 has been embraced by West Virginia in a big way, and has been appropriated by singers around the world looking for their very own "place I belong."
The first line of John Denver's song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" calls West Virginia "Almost Heaven," and when you're up in the mountains, that description can feel pretty accurate.
Almost Heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River Life is old there, older than the trees Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze
Country roads, take me home To the place I belong West Virginia, mountain mama Take me home, country roads
But these winding country roads were immortalized by someone who had never driven them.
Correspondent Conor Knighton asked, "Had you ever been to West Virginia before you wrote the song?"
"No," said Bill Danoff. "Well, in my dreams!"