“The Girl from West Virginia” appears on Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver’s 2005 album. Lawson, a former Country Gentleman and J.D. Crowe and the New South sideman before founding Quicksilver in 1979, has built one of the longest-running and most consistently regarded bands in contemporary bluegrass — with a particular reputation for tight ensemble vocals and a steady stream of well-crafted original and outside material.
The song was written by Clyde Denny and Marie Denny, with co-writer Wade Hill, and was first released by Clyde and Marie Denny With Wade Hill and Co., from whose mid-century country recording Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver drew the piece. The song’s authorship is not consistently documented in the publicly available discographic sources for this particular track. The Quicksilver catalogue draws from Lawson-circle songwriters, traditional material, and outside contributions from songwriters in the contemporary-traditional camp; the CD liner notes are the firmest reference for the writer attribution.
The lyric is a place-and-courtship piece in the older country mould: the narrator recalling the girl from West Virginia he once knew, with verses cycling through the small details of her and the mountain country she came from. Lawson’s lead vocal and Quicksilver’s signature tight three-part harmony give the recording its characteristic burnished surface. It works as a moderate-tempo vocal feature in G with a clear chorus harmony slot.
