Take Me Home, Country Roads | Chords + Lyrics (capo 2)
Intro
| G (G/D) | G (G/D) |
Verse 1
| G (G/D) | Em (Em/B) |
Almost heaven, West Virginia.
| D (D/A) | C (C/G) G (G/D) |2/4 G (G/D) |
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.
| G (G/D) | Em (Em/B) |
Life is old there, older than the trees.
| D (D/A) | C (C/G) G (G/D) |
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze.
Chorus 1
| G (G/D) | D (D/A) |
Country roads, take me home.
| Em (Em/B) | C (C/G) |
To the place, I belong.
| G (G/D) | D (D/A) |
West Virginia, Mountain Mama.
| C (C/G) | G (G/D) |
Take me home, country roads.
Verse 2
All my memories, gather ’round her.
Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water.
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky.
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye.
Chorus 2
Country roads, take me home.
To the place, I belong.
West Virginia, Mountain Mama.
Take me home, country roads.
Middle 8
| Em D/F# | G G/D |
I hear her voice in the mornin’ hour, she calls me.
| C G | D D/A |
The radio reminds me of my home far away.
| Em F F/C | C C/G G | D D/A | D7 |
Drivin’ down the road, I get a feelin’ that I should’ve been home yesterday. Yesterday.
Chorus 3
Country roads, take me home.
To the place, I belong.
West Virginia, Mountain Mama.
Take me home, country roads.
Chorus 4
Country roads, take me home.
To the place, I belong.
West Virginia, Mountain Mama.
Take me home, country roads.
Outro
| D (D/A) | G (G/D) |
Take me home, (down) country roads.
| D (D/A) | G (G/D) | G |
Take me home, (down) country roads.
Take Me Home, Country Roads Chords: Learn the progressions
As long as you fit a capo on the second fret, you can play this using almost only open-position chords, which is great news if you’re looking for a beginner guitar song.
Take Me Home, Country Roads verse chords are just I – VI – V – IV – I repeated, like this:
| G (I) | Em (VI) | D (V) | C (IV) G (I) |2/4 G |
| G | Em | D | C G |
Above with chords and lyrics, I’ve indicated that they should be played with an alternating bass. This can look a bit cluttered, perhaps it’s easier to see the chords without and then apply the bass line as you see fit.
Apart from the alternating bass, only the 2/4 bar is slightly odd, if you want to play more songs in this style, extra bars or dropped beats like this are very common.
The chorus chords are just as simple. You go I – V – VI – IV, followed by I – V – IV – I, like this:
| G (I) | D (V) | Em (VI) | C (IV) |
| G | D | C | G |
One more section is found in Take Me Home, Country Roads, and that is the middle 8, which can also be called a bridge.
Here, the chords are more adventurous, even containing a modal interchange. The first half is pretty straightforward as it goes VI – V/3 – I – IV – I – V, like this:
| Em (VI) D/F# (V/3) | G (I) | C (IV) G (I) | D (V) |
Next, we get that modal interchange, or you could see it as a temporary variation.
We’ve either swapped key to C, going III – IV – I – V – IIx, or the F chord is a bVIIx, so: VI – bVII – IV – I – V, like this:
| Em (VI) F (bVIIx) | C (IV) G (I) | D (V) | D7 |
Music theory is a descriptive, not an absolute art form, sometimes two concepts can be true at the same time. Or, two musicians can hear the same thing in two different ways!
At the end of the day, all Roman Numerals have a sound, so with that in mind, which of the two concepts do you feel is the best way to describe Take Me Home Country Roads’ bridge chords?
In the TAB part of this lesson, you’ll learn how to strum Take Me Home, Country Roads using a capo, and, also what happens if you remove it and play in the key of A.
Here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Take Me Home, Country Roads – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Once you have the TAB under your belt, a simple chord chart like this will be enough for you to play Country Roads, Take Me Home on one acoustic guitar.
Take Me Home, Country Roads Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
The chord chart is a bit confusing, make sure you follow it as you listen to the original, and also use the chords and lyrics.
Do this and the repeats, D.S. and coda signs will make sense.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Take Me Home, Country Roads Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Take Me Home, Country Roads iReal Pro.
Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key to A (see TAB lesson for more on this). You can also change the layout of the repeat sign, Segno and Coda placement.
Take Me Home, Country Roads is John Denver’s signature song!
Released in 1971, John Denver‘s Take Me Home, Country Roads has not just become John’s signature song, but also the official state Anthem of West Virginia.
This may be John’s signature song but he didn’t write it himself. Instead, it was written by husband and wife Bill Danoff (also wrote Afternoon Delight) and Taffy Nivert.
The songwriting couple had initially planned to sell the tune to Johnny Cash but after John randomly met them after a night where he’d just had his thumb broken and ended up spending time at the couple’s house, they played him the unfinished composition.
John helped write the bridge, or as I’d like to call it, middle 8, and convinced them that he should sing it, not Johnny.
The following night, John brought the couple on stage and they performed the song together, holding a single lyric sheet.
Apparently, this brought the house down and resulted in a five-minute standing ovation.
Take Me Home, Country Roads Chords | Related Pages
Take Me Home, Country Roads | Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, you get TAB examples with different strumming patterns for each section of Take Me Home, Country Roads.
| G | Em |
Almost heaven, West Virginia…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- 9 To 5 chords by Dolly Parton
- Folsom Prison Blues chords by Johnny Cash
- Have You Ever Seen The Rain chords by CCR
- Jolene chords by Dolly Parton
- Ring of Fire chords by Johnny Cash
John Denver tunes
Country legend John Denver had his golden years during the late 60s and early 70s as he was recording other people’s tunes and writing his own.
His best work includes Leaving, on A Jet Plane, Take Me Home, Country Roads, Annie’s Song, and Thank God I’m a Country Boy.
John Denver on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Take Me Home Country Roads chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
