Although she doesn’t plan to participate in the Songwriter series show hosted by the Patrick County Music Association, Paula Dellenback continues to represent her ever-present love for Patrick County almost 15 years after production of her song, “My Home.”
The song was part of her album, “The Crooked Road,” which also expressed her love for Patrick County and the Appalachian Mountains.
“In fact, everything about this CD is about this area. Like when we were building our house we lived in a parsonage down the road, and we passed by a road called Jar Gap. Well, ‘Jar Gap’ was one of my number one songs on that CD,” she said.
Dellenback added her CD’s title track is also called “The Crooked Road,” like the Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail.
Dellenback moved to the county after marrying her husband.
“I just loved it up here. It was very beautiful, we live in the county, we bought some land here and built a house,” she said.
Dellenback said the land they purchased was previously a cow pasture that was fenced off. Once the couple bought the land, they built their home on it, as noted in the part of her song that “says, ‘In the field where cattle once grazed’ and just stuff like that. I just wrote the song about where I live, and it’s absolutely beautiful up here. I love it,” she said.
“My Home” was one of the first songs Dellenback ever wrote after moving to Patrick County.
Having only played gospel music in churches, when she moved here, Dellenback said she wanted to learn to play acoustic so she could write and sing her own stuff.
“I started taking lessons from Josh Pickett. He was an artist that worked with me, and he seemed to think I had promise and all as a musician and a singer. He encouraged me and he had a recording studio and he helped me make a CD. From there, I ran into a guy who made videos and that type of thing,” she said.
Dellenback notes she doesn’t have a favorite part of “My Home” because every part of the song is personal for her.
“I’m a faith person, and you know I’m thinking about my children being raised here in a nice place and hopefully, they’ll stay near here and be what they need to be” and similar sentiments, she said.
Before moving here, Dellenback said her only farming experience was helping with tobacco.
“But I married a farmer, so that was an eye-opening experience. It was hard, it was hard work. We both worked full-time jobs, we had children, and we farmed. We were young and strong and healthy so we could do it, but it was a lot,” she said.
In “My Home,” Dellenback said she references this with “It’s always hot when you get up hay and work is hard but in the evenings the sun lights up the sky yellow, orange, and red.”
“It’s just a beautiful place. You can sit back and say, ‘Whew. I’ve done my due and now I can enjoy this,’” she said.
To listen to the song, go to https://youtu.be/cubzDwRIKX8?si=wdlXMU2EXc6FKCDD.
