Wyoming

  The song, Wyoming ,is the state song of Wyoming. Judge Charles Edwin Winter wrote the words during the summer of 1903. Earle R. Clemens wrote the music soon after. Winter and Clemens copyrighted the song in 1913 with the Wyoming Publishing Company. The song then became the unofficial Wyoming state song. In 1920, George Edwin Read More

On, Wisconsin!

  On, Wisconsin! was composed by William T. Purdy in 1909 as “Minnesota, Minnesota”. He planned to enter it into a competition for a new fight song for the University of Minnesota. Carl Beck convinced him to withdraw the song from the contest at the last minute and allow his alma mater, the University of Read More

Take Me Home, Country Roads

Take Me Home, Country Roads is a popular folk song about West Virginia. The song was written by Bill Danoff, Taff Nivert and John Denver. The trio received a letter from their friend John Albert Fitzgerald who was living in West Virginia at the time. The song was reportedly derived from a poem Fitzgerald wrote Read More

Roll On, Columbia, Roll On

“Roll On, Columbia, Roll On” is an American folk song written in 1941 by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. According to Wikipedia, “The song glamorized the harnessing of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. The 11 hydroelectric dams built on the American stretch of the Columbia helped farms and industry, but their construction also Read More

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny was written by James A. Bland, an African American who wrote over 700 songs. Bland used the same title Edward Christy used in his Christy Minstrels. Bland wrote his version in 1878. In 1916, Alma Gluck was the first celebrity to record the song. A reworded version of the Read More

Hail, Vermont!

Hail, Vermont! was written by Josephine Hovey Perry of Barre, Vermont. According to Wikipedia, “The song was significant at its time of publication for mentioning Vermont’s daughters as well as her sons.” In 1938, the song officially became the state song. The song was proclaimed state song and performed in the Vermont Pavillion at the Read More

Utah We Love Thee

Utah We Love Thee is the official state hymn of Utah. The hymn was written by Evan Stephens in 1895. The song was first performed when Utah became the 45th state in 1896. In 1937, the Utah State Legislature made the hymn the official state song. In 2003, the state legislature changed the song to Read More

The Yellow Rose of Texas

  The Yellow Rose of Texas is a traditional American folk song. “The earliest known version is found in Christy’s Plantation Melodies. No. 2, a songbook published under the authority of Edwin Pearce Christy in Philadelphia in 1853.” Christy founded Christy’s Minstrels. The song became popular during the American Civil War. The song was featured Read More

Rocky Top

Rocky Top is an upbeat tune referring to the hills of Tennessee. It is one of the state’s ten official state songs. Wikipedia describes “Rocky Top is a subpeak of Thunderhead Mountain, which overlooks Cades Cove, and is traversed by the Appalachian Trail. Rocky Top appears on maps of the western Smokies as early as Read More

The Black Hills of Dakota

The Black Hills of Dakota refers to the Black Hills that can be found in South Dakota. Wikipedia describes the Black Hills as ” are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming…The name “Black Hills” is a translation of the Lakota Read More