The natural beauty and the interesting people of Colorado have inspired many wonderful songs through the years. In this series of posts, we look at some of the best of these. The songs considered to date are:
A Mile High in Denver, by Jimmy Buffett
America the Beautiful
The Ballad of Alferd Packer, by Phil Ochs
Boulder Skies, by Pure Prairie League
Colorado, by Paper Bird
Colorado, by Rick Roberts
Colorado Bluebird Sky, by The String Cheese Incident
Colorado Girl, by Townes Van Zandt
Denver, by Willie Nelson
I-70 Westbound, by the Railbenders (new)
In My Colorado Home, by Sons of the San Joaquin
On the Natural, by Hoyt Axton
Rocky Mountain Breakdown, by Poco
Rocky Mountain High, by John Denver
Where the Columbines Grow
There are also a few Colorado songs that were discussed in posts before this series began, including:
Get Out of Denver, By Bob Seger
Colorado Christmas, by Steve Goodman
two more suggestions which you might have been getting to, Someday Soon by Ian Tyson and Me and My Uncle. Someday Soon only mentions that the young man comes from down in Southern Colorado, but I have always thought of that song as a Colorado Song. Me and My Uncle starts with the uncle and nephew riding down from Colorado and when the uncle is accused of cheating, the nephew says that can’t be, he’s as honest as me and I’m and honest as a Denver boy can be. Keep up the good work.
Those are great suggestions, and they raise an interesting question about what a “Colorado Song” really is. What about something like “Man of Constant Sorrow”? It seems that song came from Kentucky, but when Bob Dylan and Judy Collins (“Maid of Constant Sorrow”) recorded it they sang “I’m going back to Colorado.” And there is “I Know You Rider”which Alan and John Lomax found somewhere down South, but the versions by folks like the Grateful Dead and Hot Tuna include, “I wish I was headlight on a northbound train/I’d shine my light through the cool Colorado rain.”
Then, there is “I’ve Been Everywhere,” and the places mentioned in the North American version include Colorado and Eldorado (Springs?). I am pretty sure that one doesn’t count as a Colorado Song, though.