The 50 States: West Virginia!
Drrrr…. it’s Thursday and it’s another edition of our Great Guide to the 50 States! Wahhoooooo!
Today we celebrate the great state of West Virginia. I don’t remember anything about WV besides interstate, but I have been told it’s a beautiful place. You just sit there content to be sandwiched between Pennsylvania and Ohio. This makes you the southern most northern state and the northern most southern state. You are a state that spans wide with resources and wider with diversity. We’re lucky to have you, Ms West Virginia.
You’ve given us such things as George Brett, Mothers Day, the worlds largest sycamore tree, Thomas Stonewall Jackson, a kid that scored 135 points in a 1960 basketball game, Don Knotts, the first federal womens prison, the worlds largest and highest steel arch bridge (the new river gore bridge), Mary Lou Retton, Lewis L. Strauss, the lowest crime rate in the country, free rural mail delivery, the golden delicious apple, the electric railroad, and Chuck Yeager.
And you’ve inspired these songs (some good, some tired, most country) have been written about you.
Jason and the Scorchers – Take Me Home
Joni Mitchell – Morning Morgantown
Spike Jones – I Wanna Go Back to West Virginia
Alice Gerrard – The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia
They Might Be Giants – West Virginia
The Can Kickers – West Virginia Gals
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown – Salt Pork West Virginia
Edward Thompson – West Virginia Blues
Willie Nelson and David Allan Coe – West Virginia Man
Daniel Johnston – Wild West Virginia
K. McCarty – Wild West Virginia
Chicago – West Virginia Fantasies
Big Wreck – West Virginia
John Denver – Take Me Home
Phill Ochs – Hills of West Virginia
Hey kids! It’s a perfect time to sign up and/or comment. I need help getting tracks together for Washington. Tell your music snob friends to get their ass in here and show me the way to put a post together. Let’s get some steam rollin’ up in here!
The two songs I can think of off the top of my head for Washington are:
May 10th 2007 - 4:36pm“Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” by Todd Snider
“Thrice All American” by Neko Case (she’s got another song called “South Tacoma Way” on the same album, but “Thrice All American” is actually ABOUT Tacoma.)
So…I just stumbled upon this site whilst searching for Daniel Johnston tracks on Hype Machine.
I just want to say that I really love this list. I’ve been living in WV for the past eleven years and while I’m not the biggest WV fan and am by no means a friend of country music…I appreciate this entry. Not only is it a great idea to cover the states with music, it’s seldom that I run across a person that has positive things to say about my state. I work in tourism and have come across some very negative opinions /quite a few people that want to spread nasty stereotypes about our residents.
“You are a state that spans wide with resources and wider with diversity.”–You hit the nail on the head! I’m going to burn this playlist to a disk and take it to work tomorrow! *hug* Maybe I can even play it at our “West Virginia Day” celebration later this month?!
[Sorry for the rambling! Let's just blame it on the extra dose of Benadryl that I took tonight.]
June 6th 2007 - 8:36pmThis is really awesome!
A couple of this links aren’t working for me due to commas but it wasn’t too hard to guess what they should say…
in case others have problems
Edward Thompson
http://www.auralfitness.com/audio/States/west%20virgina/09%20-%20Thompson%20Edward%20-%20West%20Virginia%20Blues.mp3
John Denver is at…
June 24th 2007 - 9:14pmhttp://www.auralfitness.com/audio/States/west%20virgina/john%20denver%20-%20almost%20heaven%20west%20virginia.mp3