Local band releases song to show Mountaineer pride

The Brother Short Band's release of "Thank God, I'm A Mountaineer" premieres today on 97.9 WWKW between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The local self-proclaimed "high energy jam band" has dedicated the song to Mountaineer pride and the state of West Virginia in general, to the tune of John Denver's "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" and even mentions West Virginia head coaches Bob Huggins and Bill Stewart.

According to drummer Bill Harding, frontman Greg Short was inspired to write the song from his own love for WVU sports and wanted to give fellow WVU fans another outlet of showing their pride.

"Greg wrote the song out of a huge devotion to the WVU football and basketball teams. He comes from a family of huge Mountaineer fans, and he's just on fire for the home team, and that's how the song's lyrics came about," Harding said. "It's about people like Greg who just have a lot of love for this land, its people and WVU sports."

Although a Pennsylvania resident himself, Harding said West Virginia residents are "one-of-a-kind" in their enthusiasm for the Mountaineers.

"Everywhere I've gone in this state I've seen an unmatched pride for the gold and the blue," Harding said. "Whether the team does good or bad, people here are always fans."

Having formed 11 years ago, The Brother Short Band has been touring across the tri-state area in parts of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia and has released four albums.

The band has performed at festivals throughout the local area, including MountainFest and Ribfest and tours year round. Its latest album release was a live recording of its performance at Sunshine Daydream Music Park in the band's hometown of Preston County, W.Va.

The group performs a combination of original tracks and covers of hits by a variety of artists ranging from Tom Petty, The Zac Brown Band, Johnny Cash and The Eagles.

"We are pretty much up and down the genre list," Harding said.

The band's goal with "Thank God, I'm A Mountaineer" is what its goals as musicians have been all along: to have a good time and let people enjoy their music.

"We love to play and love for people to enjoy us while we're performing, and that's always been our mission: to make sure people are having a good time, Harding said.

"And that's what we're doing with ‘Thank God, I'm A Mountaineer:' we just want to give people another piece of Mountaineer pride to hold onto and rally around."