Virginia gave bluegrass the Carter Family and the Stanley Brothers. West Virginia gave it Hazel Dickens and the coal-country tradition that runs through John Denver’s “Country Roads” all the way back to old mountain ballads. The Blue Ridge runs the length of Virginia and shows up across the repertoire — “Blue Ridge Cabin Home,” “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues,” “My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains.” “Shenandoah” predates both genres but bluegrass claimed it. Hazel Dickens’s “West Virginia My Home” is a letter to her home state. “East Virginia Blues,” “Going Back to Old Virginia,” and “Sweet Appalachia” all trace the same longing.

Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings, and song history.