Almost heaven, West Virginia...

The first time that I heard this song, it was sung by John Denver. Live, in concert.
I was in college, far from home. I almost never went to non-classical concerts, but there I was. The show was simply him and a couple of other musicians sitting on stools, playing guitars and singing. No special effects, no fancy lighting, no larger-than-life overamplification – just the music, most of it songs that he had written.

At the end, he started in on this, which would become one of his most famous songs:

Almost heaven, West Virginia,
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River…

Sitting beside me was my friend M., who grew up in the next county over from me. West Virginia was (and is) a place that gets almost no positive notice. Few people have anything nice to say about it.

But anyone who grew up there always wants to go back.

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

I will never forget looking at her, the two of us amazed and delighted that someone was singing a song about home.

That was a long time ago, and both of us are even farther from home nowadays, a thousand miles and more in opposite directions.

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

I have not forgotten the Mountain State. None of us ever will.

*************
Tonight, three of my young friends, singing as the Skipperlings, made their first appearance at the Mill, one of the leading music venues in our community; they were the opening act for an evening of music, singing to an appreciative full house.

And they finished with this song.

I hear her voice in the morning hours she calls me,
Radio reminds me of my home far away…

When I consider how I was one of the people who helped teach these girls to sing, it gives me goosebumps. I do believe that I will remember this night as long as I remember that John Denver concert, and with equal affection.

Dear Skipperlings -- should you see this, thank you for singing that song tonight. You could not have given me a greater gift. I hope you always remember that Music can do such things for people. It can take them home, no matter how many years and thousands of miles it may be.