I wasn't sure of where to put this since it is in a song, and there isn't a category for songs on this web site. In the first verse of "Country Roads", the lyrics are,"Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River...". The slip-up is that the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River are both in Virginia, not West Virginia.
Actually Old Johnny Boy wrote the song about Virginia, WESTERN Virginia. I guess "Almost heaven, West Virginia" flows a little better then, "Almost Heaven Western Virginia"
I agree, it goes better. He is referring to western Virginia, but like many people, he was saying it like those in the state. I live in Alabama, and we always refer to places like west Alabama, south Alabama, etc.....
I couldn't disagree more, it isn't a slip up, even though only a small portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains and only 15 miles of the Shenandoah are in West Virginia if that's where you come from, that's home.
It's amazing how few people are interested in the history of this song! It's in Denver's biography, and Bill Danoff (the principle songwriter; Denver just helped with structure and arrangement) has had to tell the story hundreds of times at his restaurant in D.C., where he still plays. The reference to the Blue Ridges are the slip up : one third of the Shenandoah is in West Virginia. The three songwriters (Danoff, Denver, and Kathy Nivert) based the lyrics on letters from an artist friend living in the state of West Virginia; but they embellished it with landmark references pulled from a map. Hence the slip up! Of course, Denver's liner lyrics display the song's subject most clearly: West (never 'west') Virginia.
Nobody in Virginia (where I live) uses the term "Western Virginia". Face it folks, this is just a mistake made by people who didn't check their geography. West Virginia contains considerably LESS than 1/3 of the Blue Ridge range.
http://ngeorgia.com/mountains/blueridgemountains.html
It's no use trying to smooth it over. It's a slipup.
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