The Valley Road

Album: Scenes from the Southside (1988)
Charted: 44 5
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Songfacts®:

  • This was Bruce Hornsby's fourth major hit, following "The Way It Is," "Mandolin Rain" and "Every Little Kiss." It looks at Southern life when Hornsby was growing up in Virginia, but from a lighter perspective, simply about people and their misadventures that were commonplace back then. This is a recurring theme in Hornsby's music. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Mike - Santa Barbara, CA
  • "The Valley Road" is one of Bruce Hornsby & the Range's best known story songs, built around a romance that crosses social boundaries but cannot survive the surrounding pressure.

    Hornsby drew the idea from growing up in Virginia, where he noticed a recurring pattern. "Every year, some rich girl would get involved with some country guy, and they would act irresponsibly and have to deal with the ramifications," he explained to The Chicago Tribune.
  • Bruce Hornsby returned to "The Valley Road" in 1989, re-recording it with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two. The new rendition gave the song a country bluegrass feel in sharp contrast to the original Range track, and Hornsby later won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Recording.
  • Hornsby reimagined "The Valley Road" in a Grateful Dead-style performance for his 2018 holiday video series, giving the track new life in a very different musical setting. The transition was natural given Hornsby's deep history with the group, having opened for them in the 1980s, appeared as a frequent guest, and joined as a touring keyboardist in the early 1990s.

Comments: 9

  • Muttsey from New YorkNope.white girl goes black.we see it everyday.
  • Todd Blass from Huntsville, AlabamaI can hear a little of the same repetition in The Battle of New Orleans with this song
  • Darla from MontanaShe didn’t have an abortion, she waited out her pregnancy and gave her child up for adoption. If she’d had an abortion, she wouldn’t have needed to be “gone awhile”.
  • Jason Wayne from Ashland VirviniaThe Valley road was Not about abortion, In so called simpler times when you heard that out of the blue that some young lady out of nowhere was suddenly going to visit her Sister and would be gone awhile, It was known she was indeed pregnant and " Gone awhile " meant gone for the next 8 to 12 months which gave Her time to Have the Child and either put it up for adoption or have the older sister or other relative take care of the child til She could graduate and move back and do it herself. During Bruce Hornsby Childhood Abortion in the Country parts of the South was almost unheard of and Still against the Law.
  • Paula from CanadaThanks for the meaning of this song! Cheers Mick!
  • Rudolph Boyce from Saint Philip Barbadosgreat music selections Bruce Hornsby my favorite..
  • Mick from Elmhurst IllinoisWhile this song has a lighthearted feel to it, it's actually about a young lady getting an abortion after getting pregnant by a guy who was from a lower class than her. Lyrics like "Out in the hall they were talking in a whisper", "Everybody noticed she'd was gone awhile. Somebody said she'd gone to her sister's." (That's when she went to get the abortion) Also the line, "Standing like a stone on the old plantation, rich old man woulda never let him in, good enough to hire not good enough to marry" was about the working class boy (maybe even African American) who knocked her up.
  • Pj from Dublin, Irelandlove this song, mid 80 s i think,, visions of endless summers evenings keep popping into my mind when i hear this classic.....
    I hope to catch next gig when he comes around this side of the water......
  • Brian from Richmond, VaMuch of this Video was filmed around Williamsburg Virginia
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