When John Denver played Charleston
I was there that
day, on August 31 when John Denver played on the Blvd at the state
capitol. There was a huge crowd of people and most all of them had
already heard "Country Roads" and wanted to hear it from the man
himself. The song made the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1971 and
started climbing from there. It wouldn't be until the day after
the concert in Charleston that it finally hit number 1. While the
concert went smoothly, there were a couple of hiccups: John sang
a couple of war protest songs and wanted the crowd to join in, but few
if anyone did. I felt a little embarrassed for him. But by the
time County Roads came around, all was forgiven. No one knew that day what Country
Roads would mean to WV.
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Just part of the crowd at the Capitol that
day. Photo courtesy of Jane
Bess Wooten
There's always one
right? But he wasnt the only one.
This was TOO funny! They were comparing John
Denver to Billy Ed Wheeler, WV's home grown boy. Some guy even took
offence that we were giving more accolades to Denver than Billy Ed. Are
you kidding me?
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And here's the guy: Remember Billy Ed's
most famous song? "Ode to the Little
Brown Shack Out Back". WOW!
Now there's a song that we'll never forget with lyrics like: "The interstate is
coming through my outhouse..."
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Mr Whitaker had
NO idea how County Roads would not only affect West Virginian's, BUT
THE WHOLE WORLD!
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