Who knew this was even a debate?
Somehow, somewhere out there in the world, there are genuinely people who believe that John Denver’s hit, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (a song that, mind you, repeats “West Virginia” five times) is not actually about the state of West Virginia but rather the western part of Virginia. Leave it to someone on the internet to be a conspiracy theorist even about the 1971 classic tune.
If anyone beyond John Denver himself could settle the debate once and for all, it would have to be West Virginia native and massive WVU fan, Charles Wesley Godwin. His version from his 2023 album, Family Ties, along with his 2022 rendition with Zach Bryan, have become revived versions of the anthem for this generation, with the latter garnering over 13 million streams on Spotify alone.
Luckily, Godwin set the record straight on today’s episode of the God’s Country Podcast after being asked by the two brothers, “What you mad at?” In response, he brought up this past weekend’s WVU baseball game, where, per tradition, when the Mountaineers win, the whole stadium sings “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
He continued with a heated expression, saying, “Every time, man. And inevitably, there’s always that persons that’s like, ‘you know, the songs about Virginia or about western [Virginia].” Ranting to the brothers, he admitted, “Those people drive me f*cking nuts.”
Now, as someone who always took the numerous “West Virginia” mentions in that song as canon and never blinked an eye at any other geographical meanings, upon some internet digging, this is actually a longstanding debate on the internet. Apparently, the fact that the song mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River, two landmarks of the state of Virginia, has led to a number of Reddit threads, blog posts, and articles debating the matter.
According to Godwin, the hot take is “the smuggest, most annoying thing.” Mapping things out, he adds, “If you’re coming from D.C., swing through Harper’s Ferry and tell me it’s about Virginia, not West Virginia, it drives me nuts.”
The country music singer-songwriter has put in the research himself and gone straight to the source to verify the song’s “West Virginia” roots, thanks to his own track, “Cue Country Roads,” which pays homage to Denver’s tune. While creating the song for the Mountaineers and WVU athletics in mind, Godwin had to go through John Denver’s estate to get permission from the manager of the late singer’s catalogue.
Having to pay the estate a royalty to maintain the song, he adds that he had met family members and others close to Denver who have verified that the song is “about West Virginia”:
“The story goes, they were writing it. They played in D.C. the night before and they’re headed west and they were going through like the Eastern panhandle and grne through Harper’s Ferry and they were writing the song that day in the car.” Further clarifying, “the Blue Ridge mountains are on the Eastern side of the shannandoah Valley in Virginia, but it can be an adjective as well cause all the Appalachians look blue when you see them out in the distance and the Shennadoah River runs right through that part of the Eastern Panhandle.”
Just know if you’re one of the smug know-it-alls on Twitter trying to sound wise and dispute WVU’s long-standing sports anthem, Charles Wesley Godwin is silently judging you. And if there’s one thing to know about the “All Again” singer, “Mountaineers gets me fired up.”
With his most recent single, “Hey There Son,” alongside Wyatt Flores dropping just last week, the release of his fourth studio album, Christian Name, is now just a little over a month away on July 24. Celebrating the project, he’ll hit the road on his coinciding headlining tour starting July 11 in Fargo, North Dakota, along with joining Dylan Gossett on a co-headlining run and opening for Kacey Musgraves on her “Middle of Nowhere Tour.”
Tour Dates:
- Jul 11 – Fargo, ND – UP District Festival Field
- Jul 14 – Sioux Falls, SD – The District
- Jul 17 – Emigrant, MT – The Old Saloon
- Jul 18 – Kalispell, MT – Majestic Valley Arena
- Aug 4 – San Francisco, CA- Regency
- Aug 6 – Sacramento, CA – Channel 24
- Aug 7 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
- Aug 8 – San Diego, CA – SOMA
- Aug 13 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto
- Aug 14 – Phoenix, AZ – Van Buren
- Aug 21 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
- Aug 22 – Toronto, ON – History
- Aug 27 – Oklahoma City, OK – Criterion
- Sept 11 – Baltimore, MD – Pier Six
- Sept 12 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
- Sept 17 – Landmark Theatre – Syracuse, NY
- Sept 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Fillmore
- Oct 17 – Garden City, ID – Revolution Concert House
- Oct 18 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
- Oct 21 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
- Oct 22 – Seattle, WA – SoDo
- Oct 24 – Vancouver, BC – Orpheum Theater
- Nov 5 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
- Nov 7 – Cincinnati, OH – MegaCorp Pavilion
- Nov 12 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed
- Nov 13 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside
- Nov 14 – St. Louis, MO – Factory