Somehow, John Denver got hip again the last couple of years.
Now, this is largely due to younger people finding his music in their
parents' collections. For some of us who lived through it, it's a bit
hard to stomach this. While he wasn't Barry Manilow, he hardly rocked,
and there was a hint of show biz in his aww-shucks appeal.
Yet taken on their own, many of Denver's songs do stand up, when
played now as folk, roots and country numbers. Here, an eclectic group
bring out the best of them. And it's no surprise that Denver's biggest
crossover hit, and most cheesy one, found no takers. There's really no
redemption for Thank God I'm A Country Boy. Other songs with a more
serious take on that love of rural America make for better choices.His first solo hit, and one of his best, Take Me Home, Country Roads, pretty much set the theme for these tunes, the desire to get out of the city and back to the land, back to family and goodness. It's interesting that it wasn't the hippie version of the day, the commune people. In Denver's songs, Ma and Pa are still working the farm, and he's reconnecting with that warmth. Still, they resonate today, there's no denying it. Brandi Carlisle, with Emmylou Harris on harmonies, does a strong version, centered around the great singing on this memorable lyric, giving it more of a jug band flavour.
What Denver did for West Virginia with that song, he did
twenty times over for Colorado. In fact, he took his stage name from
the state capitol, and following the success of his signature hit Rocky
Mountain High, moved there permanently. Those nature-and-mountain
loving numbers provide some of the best covers here. Allen Stone's
version of Rocky Mountain High is delicate and passionate, and shows
Denver at his best, with a pretty melody and grand descriptions: "I've
seen it raining fire from the sky." Mary-Chapin Carpenter's take on I
Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado shows his sensitive writing could be
quite earnest and touching.
It's certainly not a collection made for original Denver
fans, but rather it aims at everyone from hipsters to nu-hippies. Dave
Matthews is here, and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. Train get to do Sunshine
On My Shoulders, and Old Crow Medicine Show do their old-time thing on
the old-time honouring Back Home Again. The biggest surprises come from
My Morning Jacket, reviving Leaving On A Jet Plane, the number Denver
wrote that became a huge hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, and ..shock... a
strong-sounding Evan Dando, back from God knows where, and making the
number Looking For Space sound like a post-grunge confessional from
someone who's lived and learned.
Yes, I lived through the Denver years, a time when you had so
few radio stations that you had to put up with the lighter fare to get
to the other gems on the Top 40. We'd cheer for Grand Funk Railroad,
Wings and Elton, cringe when The Carpenters or Denver came on. To this
day, I've never owned one of his records. This tribute disc may
actually make me do something about that. Or perhaps this is a better
way to hear him these days.
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