When Colorado lawmakers made “Rocky Mountain High” the second official state song in 2007, they couldn’t help but highlight the original, “Where the Columbines Grow,” which had been sanctioned since 1915.
But which song best represents Colorado? We’ve got our favorites, ranging from local bands like The String Cheese Incident, The Railbenders, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters — who praise the state’s natural beauty and its laidback culture — to folk-rock and country legends such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Townes Van Zandt.
Newer artists continue to praise the state too, with tracks from Colorado Springs pop-rock juggernaut OneRepublic, and country’s Florida Georgia Line.
Even though Colorado has two official songs, there are more to consider in advance of the state’s sesquisemiquincentennial (or 150th birthday) next year — which coincides with the United States’ own 250th birthday.
Maybe it’s time to add a third?
‘Rocky Mountain High’ by John Denver
The reigning champ of Colorado’s pop-music heritage is this acoustic anthem from late Aspen resident John Denver. Released in 1972, it was first criticized (and in a few cases, embraced) for its ostensibly sly reference to marijuana in the line, “Friends around the campfire, everybody’s high.” Denver denied that was the case.
When it was approved by Colorado lawmakers in 2007 — they even listened to a live performance of the song in the statehouse chamber — Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, tried and failed to amend the resolution to “make it clear that the song refers to Colorado’s altitude and doesn’t encourage drug use.”
“If we don’t like ‘Where the Columbines Grow,’ the legislature should remove it and replace it,” said Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, who added at the time that he didn’t think the state should have two songs. (He also admitted he didn’t know the words to the original state song.)
Nevertheless, “Rocky Mountain High” soars on Denver’s silky voice and melodies, and has outlasted its folky, soft-rock trappings to be embraced by a majority of Coloradans, at least according to the legislature.
‘Where the Columbines Grow,’ Arthur J. Fynn
The composer of Colorado’s first state song was a New York-born author and academic who worked his way up from poverty before moving to Central City in 1889 to teach. But “Columbines” wasn’t his only creation, thanks to his poetry and nonfiction books. He was an early expert on Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest, and not exactly a musician, according to University of Colorado’s American Music Research Center.
The Colorado General Assembly adopted “Columbines” as the official state song in 1915, about four years after Fynn composed the melody on a ship returning from Europe, according to Denver Post report. “Like the lyrics of Colorado’s other state anthem … the second verse of Columbines contains an environmental lament,” wrote Rob Natelson, a retired law professor who penned an Independence Institute paper on the song.
The slowly cascading piano melody, and lyrics that include “where the snow peaks gleam in the moonlight,” recall gorgeous vistas and high-country air — “the pioneer land that we love.” Like “Rocky Mountain High,” it’s a stripped-down number that stands on its own thanks to sturdy melody and earnest sentiment.
More iconic songs about Colorado
‘A Mile High in Denver,’ Jimmy Buffett
One of the best-known songs about Colorado’s capital is this 1970 entry from an artist more closely associated with beach culture. “A Mile High in Denver” bounces on folkie acoustic strumming and Buffett’s talk-singing as he shares, “I’m about a mile high in Denver / Where the rock meets timberline / I’ve walked this ground from town to town / Tonight I’ll call it mine.”
‘Boulder to Birmingham,’ Emmylou Harris
How much did country heroine Harris love country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons, her one-time partner? “I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham / If I thought I could see your face,” she sings. The tune is from her 1975 album, “Pieces of the Sky,” which came out about a year after Parsons died, but it’s outlived the context to become a mellow heartbreak classic.
‘Get Out of Denver,’ Bob Seger
Predating Hank Williams Jr.’s rambling and cheeky “O.D.’ed in Denver,” which was released in 1979, is this rip-roaring track about evading police in the Mile High City. “Made it to Loveland Pass in under less than half an hour / Lord, it started drizzling and it turned into a thundershower,” sings Seger on this lead-off track from his 1974 album “Seven.” The guitar-ripper bears striking, if entirely self-aware, resemblance to Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” which is certainly not a bad thing.
‘Goodbye in Telluride,’ Dierks Bentley
A relatively new entry on this list, Bentley’s 2018 pop-country song joins a long queue of artists praising this gorgeous, tony mountain town known for its film and music events. “No, don’t take me that low when we’re up this high / Don’t you tell me goodbye in Telluride,” sings Bentley, a Telluride resident, over sunny guitar chords and clap-along beats. Tim McGraw, Neil Young, String Cheese Incident, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, and others have also lauded the town in song.
‘San Luis,’ Gregory Alan Isakov
More in the vein of Willie Nelson’s bittersweet “Denver” (from 1975’s “Red Headed Stranger”) than a dust-kicking country-folk banger, “San Luis” — from the Boulder-based songwriter’s Grammy-nominated 2018 album “Evening Machines” — finds Isakov on a solo road trip through the state’s oldest continually occupied town. It’s hushed, melancholy and rending in all the best ways. “I’m a ghost of you, you’re a ghost of me / A bird’s-eye view of San Luis.”
‘Colorado Girl,’ Townes Van Zandt
Like John Prine and other singer-songwriters who shot out of the late 1960s and early ’70s, folk legend Van Zandt could turn on an emotional dime, with devastating melodies and lyrics that could also be strangely uplifting. The 1969 track “Colorado Girl,” off his self-titled third album, is as plain as can be — just Van Zandt’s vulnerable voice and light, finger-picked guitar — but he covers lots of ground as he fêtes his Colorado girl and laments her absence. “The promise in her smile shames the mountains tall / She can bring the sun to shining / Tell the rain to fall.”