“Take Me Home, Country Roads” was written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver. Danoff and Nivert began the song — the title line came to them on a country drive in Maryland — and finished it with Denver in a late-night session; Denver released it as a single in 1971, and it became a signature hit, rising near the top of the pop chart.
Its evocation of West Virginia — mountains, rivers, and the pull of home — struck a chord far beyond country music, and the song has since become an unofficial anthem of that state and a standard the world over.
The Country Gentlemen recorded it on their 1972 album The Award-Winning Country Gentlemen. The band had long made a point of carrying contemporary songwriting into bluegrass, and Denver’s gentle, rooted ballad slipped naturally into their repertoire.
