“Despite naming West Virginia,‘Country Roads’is placeless in the way that it draws upon a sense of mythical, imagined place-belonging and community.”

Sometimes, I like to sidle up to a jukebox in a dive bar and select the iconic “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” What happens next tells me a lot about the other people in the room and the atmosphere of the place. Often, clusters of folks who feel called toward homesickness get caught up in the melody and replace conversation momentarily with song. If the bar is in West Virginia, however, the response is more reverent: The entire room may come to a standstill, everyone singing. Depending on the hour and collective level of intoxication, sometimes people cover their hearts and wipe tears from their eyes.