Check out this incredible cover of the bluegrass classic ‘Rocky Top;’ you’re sure to be singing along and tapping a toe in a jiffy!
Meet Bedford, Indiana’s Austin Harper, Rusty Collier, Sarah Stewart, and Hunter Phillips, standing left to right at the water’s edge on a rocky beach. They play the mandolin, bass, banjo, and guitar and make up the Backroads Bluegrass.
The four musicians are down-to-earth and at ease. Their performance looks effortless as they stand under a partially cloudy sky on a breezy day. They don’t sing about the weather, but they do sing about a place in the hills of Tennessee—a place that’s a little bit of Heaven for any wanting to escape the cages and constraints of city life.
Though the lyrics are a little silly, the song speaks of a simple place where there’s no smog or telephone service. And, while the dirt’s no good for growing anything, there’s moonshine and canned corn!
Here are four lines from “Rocky Top.”
‘Once I had a girl on Rocky Top
Half bear the other half cat
Wild as a mink but sweet as soda-pop
I still dream about that’
‘Rocky Top’ was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant in 1967 and recorded by the Osborne Brothers later that year. While the writers didn’t say that ‘Rocky Top’ was an actual place, many believe the song references a spot in the Great Smoky Mountains, likely along the North Carolina and Tennessee border.
In 1982, Tennessee adopted ‘Rocky Top’ as one of its eleven state songs! And, in 2014, a Tennessee town of fewer than 2,000 people changed its name to Rocky Top; the town had previously been named Coal Creek and Lake City.
Del Bryant, one of the songwriters’ sons, shared with The Tennessean, “They were writing an album for Archie Campbell called ‘The Golden Years’ and Mom felt as though she were aging dramatically with every old age song they wrote. She said, ‘Boudleaux, let’s do a mountain song, a bluegrass song, anything else.’”
‘Rocky Top’ was written in about 10 minutes! Felice and Boudleaux’s 10-minute effort, along with the countless recordings and performances—including Backroads Bluegrass’s—over the last 57 years has certainly provided many, many hours of enjoyment!
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20