S.O.D. "Take Me Home, Country Roads

4/9/2015     Written by Denver, William Danoff, and Taffy Nivert.  Danoff is a singer/songwriter who also wrote "Afternoon Delight" and performed it when he was with the Starland Vocal Band.  Mary Catherine "Taffy" Nivert was also a singer/songwriter that was a part of the Starland Vocal Band.  At a Washington DC club called The Cellar Door, Nivert and Danoff, calling themselves "Fat City" opened for Denver at a 1970s show and the three got together afterwords.  

     Husband and wife at the time, Danoff and Nivert were in the process of writing "Country Roads" without a title.  Their inspiration came while driving to a family reunion for Nivert's relatives in Maryland. It began as a ballad that Danoff made up about the winding roads they were on and was then changed to suit the splendors of West Virginia due to an artist friend that used to write to Danoff about the state.  They had planned to sell the song to Johnny Cash but when they sung it to Denver, he was crazy about it and told them he would like to have the song on his next album and the three continued to finish the composition.  

     West Virginians gave the song a warm welcome and the West Virginia Legislature has named it the state song.  It is also the theme song for West Virginia University and has been played before every home football game since 1972.  John left us in 1997 after a plane crash took his life. He considered "Take Me Home Country Roads" to be his signature song.