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Show M DSnVGr Cravath) convinces the king that a conspiracy may Drmg disaster ir me -King leaves. hall crowds don't discourage him has ever seen. Denver's personality captivated the audience au-dience from the slart. When he walked on stage and immediately went in to his first song, "Follow Me," everyone in unison stirred semi-audibly as if to say, "I didn't think he'd sound that good in person." His humor had the whole place laughing, and once he had established himself with the audience, some of his songs had a few people crying. From his manner on stage, the audience audi-ence couldn't help but see that he was a By GEOFF TOWNS 'k ago Thursday, John Denver :-Jid in concert a; t:,e Sports and l Events Center. You probably ; see him; not many people did. weiu to the concert because they 3 Denver through his albums; others 1y decided to take a chance on who "only has one hit record." :; whatever reason those 1 ,788 ;ent. They were treated to one of performances Salt Lake City nice guy. He arrived at the SEC about 4:30 that afternoon, wearing his wire-framed wire-framed glasses and carrying his two guitars. gui-tars. The first order of business was to become thrilled with his dressing room ("Hey, this is great!"). Next, he shook hands with everyone in the general area and broke the ice with Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds ("Hey, you guys have got a giant hit going!"). It took Denver about a half hour to (Continued on page 8, column 2) TREMENDOUS BAROAIN! SCA-35 Stereo Ampllller. T , -r Sanders, takes place mainly in a Ring portrays a new breed ot others were doing John Denver Personality and talent captivate audience (Continued from page 7) adjust the sound system ("Sir, could I have a little more vloume on my guitar mike, please?" Thank you."). There was no rehearsal, re-hearsal, really, just setting up the sound. And when he sang a few bars into the mike to test it, there was no doubt that some people were in for a memorable concert. Played with Mitchell Trio A little-known fact about Denver is that for a time he played with the Mitchell Trio, taking Chad Mitchell's place about five years ago. The first song he wrote as a member of the trio was "For Bobby," which they recorded. He then wrote "Leaving on a Jet Plane," but the trio didn't like it and didn't record it. However, Peter, Paul and Mary heard the song and liked it enough to record it. After that, the Mitchell Trio decided to record it, too. For the past two years, Den ver has spent most of his time working college concerts. He's been a single two and a half years since the trio broke up. Compared and Packaged Denver has often been compared com-pared to and "packaged with" other singer-writers such as James Taylor. He understands it, but doesn't go along. "Because I'm a songwriter, I'm going to be compared to James Taylor, Chis Christopher-son, Christopher-son, Steven Stills, all the people who are writing their own music," mu-sic," says Denver. "Other than the fact that I dig a lot of Taylor's songs, I don't think there is really any comparison. We're different kinds of performers, per-formers, we have a different approach to music." How does he write his songs? "Usually the songs I write come out of a phrase, like 'Poems, Prayers and Promises.' thing I think I do best, the thing I enjoy doing the most, is live performances. And the main reason rea-son I've worked in recording is that's the way to get people to come see me in person." Terms of Achievement Denver has had many successes suc-cesses in his career, but hasn't thought about them in terms of achievements. "Each time you accomplish something, there is always something some-thing else that takes its place that you are working toward. The best thing I've done profes- -sionally I think are my four albums together. They're four really different albums, and though there are a lot of mistakes mis-takes in all of them, I hope they show some of the growth I've gone through getting to this point. The biggest success I've had is 'Jet Plane,' which has been recorded by a whole lot of people, but I think 'Poems, Prayers and Promises' is a much better song." An attendance of 1 ,788 is enough to discourage most performers per-formers from every coming back. But John Denver may be different. Let's hope so. When I have a chance, I play around with anything I've been working on or that I've written down somewhere and try to build a song out of it. Sometimes Some-times I can do it right away , and sometimes it takes six months." Finally Has a Hit After seven albums (three with the Mitchell Trio) and countless singles, Denver finally has a hit record, "Take Me Home, Country Roads." And, in his words, he's "flipped out about it." Very Exciting "It's very exciting because it's something I've wanted and worked for a long time. And now that it's happened, there are a whole lot of things that sort of change around you the way people deal with you when you come into towns. There is a certain kind of recognition you get when you have a top 40 record that you can really get no other way. When people all over the country hear you on the radio every day, usually more people are going to come see you when you perform live. The |
