Singled Out: The High Plains Drifters' Virginia

10-29-2018

Americana band The High Plains Drifters recently released their debut single "Virginia", which is from their eponymous debut album. To celebrate we asked Larry Studnicky to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

Like many of my songs, I've carried the first verse and chorus to "Virginia" in my head for years and years. That verse and chorus date back to my aggro-single years in the pre-social-media Manhattan of the early and mid 1980's. It was a magical time to be a single guy in NYC, except that it promoted a Peter Pan-like prolonged adolescence in many of us.
Inevitably, either because you were then a moron where women were concerned, or had a commitment phobia, or took your job (and yourself) way too seriously, you'd meet a great gal and somehow drop the ball. The girls were always more mature than we were. In retrospect, it's a miracle that any of them would speak to us, much less date us.

Every now and then, there'd be this little voice in the back of your head (your sober, responsible, mature, maybe-someday-I'll-settle-down voice) nagging you, saying, "Don't ignore THIS girl. She could be The One. This girl you should probably take home to meet your mom."

But then you'd have another beer (or whatever was your poison in the 80's), say or do something incredibly stupid, and the relationship would end - badly. Sometimes, you'd know immediately you had made a terrible mistake; other times, you'd realize over time that you had messed up.

Either way, in my case, I'd sometimes find myself wondering if and how I could get back together with some of those girls. But you can't go back in time. Relationships are so fragile, even at their best. I think that a guy and gal probably are given only one true shot, at one time only, to become an "us". If you blow that chance, it's probably gone forever.

The singer in "Virginia" is wishing that wasn't the case. He wishes that he could get back together with this amazing girl he foolishly walked away from, years ago. But he's never going to make his way back to her. And he knows it.

Not that she'd be foolish enough to take him back . . .

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!