"Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" is a song written circa 1878 by James A. Bland (1854–1911), an African-American composer and minstrel performer. It was Virginia's state song from 1940 until 1997.
There is some evidence suggesting that it is an adaptation of "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny" ("De Floating Scow of Ole Virginia") which had been popular since the 1840s and was sung by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.
A third reworded version was Virginia's state song from 1940 until 1997, using the word "Virginia" instead of "Virginny." In 1997, it was retired as the state song, largely due to controversy over the lyrics' racial content (such as the narrator being a slave, and referring to himself as a "darkey"). In 1997, Virginia passed a law to designate "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" as state song emeritus, but a resolution to initiate a study committee and a contest for writing a new state song did not advance as it was agreed to by the Virginia Senate but not the Virginia House of Delegates. In 2026 the Virginia General Assembly voted to remove it as state song emeritus, which would become law on July 1 if the governor signs it.
The song was representative of the commonwealth in many ways. "When Clifton A. Woodrum was in Congress, the House of Representatives couldn't adjourn until the honorable Democrat from Roanoke, Virginia with a rich and varied baritone voice led the body in a rendition of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny".
In January 2006, a state Senate panel voted to designate "Shenandoah" as the "interim official state song." On March 1, 2006, the House Rules Committee of the General Assembly voted down bill SB682, which would have made "Shenandoah" the official state song. In 2015, "Our Great Virginia" was made the new state song of Virginia.
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Americana string band Old Crow Medicine Show's 2012 album, Carry Me Back, derives its name from 'Carry Me Back to Old Virginny'. The song with "such a pleasurable melody and such discomfiting politics that it has fascinated bandleader Ketch Secor since he was a kid in Virginia" led him to write "Carry Me Back to Virginia," for the group's album. As Secor reveals: