John Denver: Non-stop showman
by Mary Anne Leonard, The Knickerbocker News, August 10, 1981
“You certainly got more than enough of John Denver,” remarked one woman appreciatively as she walked to the parking lot of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Sunday night.
Truer words, as Denver himself would say, were never spoken.
Taking the stage shortly after 8:30 p.m., the performer ran through four numbers quickly before pausing to tell his fans he would treat them to 35 songs in a one-and-a-half-hour show. Two-and-a-half hours later (and at least 35 songs), Denver was still singing an encore. The audience may have been exhausted, but the nonstop Denver hardly seemed wilted.
For the crowd of 11,700 who sold out the amphitheater and swarmed on the lawn, Denver could do no wrong. His country-fresh personality may strike some as saccharine, and his lyrics will never stun you with insights or originality. But his Sunday-manners politeness and his aw-shucks charm transcend all age groups, as the SPAC audience attested. Women find him irresistibly cute, and he’s not sexy, so the men aren’t threatened. And young and old lap up his songs about his loves: love between man and woman and love of the great outdoors.
In one of the few times he stopped singing and talked to the audience, for example, Denver was introducing a new song he wrote on his wedding anniversary, when he was traveling in China, and his wife was back home. The audience not only applauded the song (a pleasant enough number called “Shanghai Breezes”), they interrupted his story to applaud the fact that Denver has been married 14 years.
This thread of home and hearth runs through most of Denver’s songs, both by him and other songwriters. But there also seems to be another type of country boy inside him aching to get out, the kind who drinks beer and sings up a storm all night with his buddies.
And somewhere inside there’s also the old folkie, who remembers hootenannies, playing his 12-string and singing for causes.
The Sunday night audience saw a little of all of these Denvers, and one left the concert wishing he would pick one musical path and follow it.
Many of his songs, including the ones from his current album “Some Days Are Diamonds,” are lushly orchestrated, and Denver had a string section of at least 30 pieces — with its own conductor — at the back of the stage, providing accompaniment.
At the front, Denver also had assembled an impressive touring band, including some of the best country session musicians in the business. But for much of the first half of the show, their efforts were largely overpowered.
In addition to his own songs, Denver performed an eclectic selection by other songwriters — including several John Prine songs, and others by Michael Murphey, Jesse Winchester and Pete Seeger. Although cracking a few times on higher notes, Denver’s voice held out nicely, and even managed to infuse some new life into such standards as “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” and “Country Roads.”
About midway through, Denver sent the band off stage for a rest, and he sat alone in the spotlight, offering some more-than-adequate guitar playing and a few quiet moments.
But the show really took off when the band returned. With the legendary James Burton (who played backup for Elvis Presley among others) on slide and lead guitar, Denver launched into a ripping version of “Memphis, Tennessee.” Not the best rendition ever, but not bad for a reformed folkie.
The best moment of the evening (and no, it wasn’t when Denver led the audience in a singalong of “Home on the Range”) came when Denver and his band (including the talented back-up singer Linda Dillard) sang an a cappella version of a Stephen Foster song, “Hard Times Come Again No More.” No strings, no conductor, nothing but five lovely voices harmonizing beautifully.
Although the evening had plenty of fine music, it could have used a little more of this magic.
Recent Comments