It’s not an official patriotic song, but it evokes the heart of our country. Written by an American but done best by an Australian, this version is set like a hymn.
If you’ve never heard this version, treat yourself; it’s a weeper.
A long time ago when I was very young, before everything went dark, there were sweet, comforting moments. One of them was my mother in the front seat of the car, cigarette in her left hand with blue smoke trailing out the vent window and the soft blue lights on the dash as she sang along to this in her pretty soprano, doing the higher harmony line.
’I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me—the radio reminds me of my home far away’
God bless America.
Awwww, what a sweet memory indeed with your mom.
Country Roads is a very special song for me too. I grew up in southwest Pennsylvania, mostly in Pittsburgh, but my beloved grandparents lived further south in the country, just a spit away from West Virginia and with its own tall hills. I LOVE those mountains, I yearn for them. Driving down the road, I sometimes get the feeling that I should have been “home” yesterday.
My grandparents had a bit of a twang to their speech, and Pap-Pap was a coal miner, and they qualified as hillbillies I suppose, but the good kind. So yeah, my memories of the mountains and the country and my family are of an Almost Heaven.
Great song, but this is sacrilege! John Denver all the way! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrEljMfXYo
With that said, I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment that this song really does convey something wonderful about our country.