Thomas DeBusk sings "Cradle of Liberty"

Photo, audio by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times The lyrics Oh more than life, give me liberty, or give me death! These words, they burn deep inside of me; they’re part of who I am! It’s my heritage, my charge to keep, for I was born free!| In Virginia! My Virginia! The cradle of my liberty! In Hampton Roads, Mt. Verson’s fields, Creation shows your grandest touch! Blue Ridge Mountain Views, Shenandoah’s vales, your beauty overwhelms me! It’s my heritage, my charge to keep, for I am blessed to see: In Virginia! My Virginia! your beauty overwhelms me! Yorktown’s bloody shores, Appomatox’ doors, they bought our dignity! Those who died to give us freedom’s light, I’ll guard the flame each day! It’s my heritage, my charge to keep, for I am bound to feed In Virginia! My Virginia! The flame of liberty! We hold this truth self-evident: all men are equal! This gift you gave, Mother of Presidents, it lights our way! It’s my heritage, our charge to keep, for we are proud to be In Virginia! My Virginia! The cradle of our liberty!

BLACKSBURG -- If not for the throat-stripping high notes of "The Star Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key might have gone down as another Georgetown lawyer.

If 41-year-old Blacksburg lawyer Thomas DeBusk has his way, he also will be remembered for more than his law practice.

DeBusk has recently penned "Cradle of Liberty" a tune he hopes will become the Virginia state song.

"I can't say I wrote this under duress in a boat," DeBusk joked.

Sitting at a piano in his Blacksburg home, DeBusk has just finished crooning the churchy ballad he plans to introduce to legislators to take the place of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia," which was ditched as the state song in 1997.

DeBusk wrote his song, which quotes heavily from Virginians Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry ("We hold this truth self evident" and "Give me liberty or give me death") as he sat in court, waiting for his cases to be called.

Like Key, DeBusk said he was sitting around with nothing much to do when he wrote his song. Although DeBusk admits he was surely more bored -- no rockets, no red glare.

Although he has studied the piano since the fourth grade, DeBusk has never composed a song before "Cradle of Liberty." Never even thought of it.

He got the idea for the song after this year's state legislative debate over Senate Bill 682, which nominated a revamped "Shenandoah" with fresh lyrics as the interim state song. The bill, and thus the song, was ultimately rejected.

Word is, legislators balked at the tune that originally went: "Away, I'm bound way, cross the wide Missouri," even if the West-bound lyrics had been rendered pro-Virginian.

DeBusk applauds their decision.

"I thought we ought to have something that is homegrown, native you might say, indigenous," he said.

Virginia has not had a state song since "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" was put to rest. The state retired the song because of its racially offensive lyrics including the phrases "old darkey" and "massa." The song was written by James Bland, an African-American.

Since the state has been songless, there has been no dearth of would-be state song composers.

In 1998, the General Assembly created a State Song Subcommittee and started a state song contest. The subcommittee whittled the entries down to eight. But a final recommendation was never made and the contest was suspended.

And the state remains songless.

"It's hard to please everybody," said Virginia DeBusk after her son played "Cradle of Liberty."

DeBusk said his song has gone through many incarnations in the last few months. Maybe 100 people, at most, have heard of the song, he said. Most have been members of Republican groups to which DeBusk belongs.

But Olen Gardner, a Democrat bluegrass player, once played the song with Debusk singing at a Republican breakfast at a Shoney's in Tazewell County.

"I can't play and sing at the same time very well," DeBusk said.

So what kind of guy sits down and writes a state song?

Maybe one who is super patriotic about his state, DeBusk said. DeBusk lived in Texas for a five years in the late '80s. He realized it was time to come home one day when he was driving out of Dallas and saw a car with Virginia plates.

"They must be homesick," he remembered thinking.

"Texas is the only state that has twice the pride of Virginia, but only half the reason," he added.

At the Montgomery County Courthouse on Monday, DeBusk ran into Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, in the hallway.

DeBusk gave him the sheet music for the song.

Griffith's response, DeBusk said, was to say that he didn't know how to read music.

DeBusk said his next step is to put the song on a compact disc and start sending it out to state legislators.

Maybe it will catch on.

"Who knows, I could be the Francis Scott off-key of Virginia," he said.