“A ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH IN THE HEARTLAND” By Emily M. Parris April 17, 2009 - Kansas City, MO - "The Music of John Denver" Kansas City Symphony 8:00pm Church of the Resurrection / 5001 W. 137th Street / Leawood, KS 66224 Guest Conductor: Lee Holdridge The Church of the Resurrection is a huge, sprawling auditorium that is very impressive. On Friday, April 17th, it was filled by the beautiful music of John Denver and the Kansas City Symphony. Jim Curry was the lead singer along with his wife, Annie, Pete Huttlinger, Ritchie Gajate Garcia, Alan Deremo, Tristan Garcia, Chris Wills and Diane Ireland. This church is where all the Kansas City “Pops” concerts are held so we were already familiar with the auditorium. Lee Holdridge conducted the Kansas City Symphony for the concert. The first selection was the most impressive of all – the “John Denver Overture” – a piece played just by the Symphony. It was wonderful to have those familiar songs woven into an overture and played by our own Kansas City Symphony. Jim Curry was the voice of John Denver in the made-for-tv movie, "Take Me Home, the John Denver Story". This experience inspired him to produce full-length John Denver tribute concerts. He is not an impersonator. He sings in his own natural voice and sometimes he sounds a lot like John Denver. Two large screens on each side of the stage showed John Denver, the musicians onstage, and other beautiful scenes from nature that John loved so much. In the first half they sang “Rocky Mountain High”, “Leaving On A Jet Plane”, “Annie’s Song” (which Jim dedicated to his own Annie), “Wild Montana Skies”, “Back Home Again”, “Shanghai Breezes”, “Eagles and Horses”, “Sunshine On My Shoulders”, the “Eagle and the Hawk” and the very important “Yellowstone Coming Home.” “Yellowstone Coming Home” was the last song that John sang in concert but never recorded in a studio. The lobby of the Church of the Resurrection is more like a mall than a church. There is nice seating, a coffee and snack shop and shopping areas with things of a religious nature for sale. In addition to that, the Kansas City Symphony had their usual refreshments for sale and there was a table with KC Symphony items as well as the cd’s of the other musicians in the show. The second half of the program started out with “This Old Guitar” followed By “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” and a wonderful medley of three love songs: “My Sweet Lady” / “Perhaps Love” and “For You.” They were beautifully interwoven in the medley and sung with sincere emotion by Jim Curry. After that Pete Huttlinger took center stage with his song “McGuire’s Landing.” He told a story to go along with it and everyone was very moved by the song. At one point Marvin Gruenbaum played the fiddle for them. He plays the viola in the Kansas City Symphony and used to be in a group called “Spontaneous Combustion”. He always switched seamlessly from one type of music to another in his “other band.” We’ve always enjoyed all the groups in which he plays. Diane Ireland also did a wonderful job playing the flute on several selections. “Grandma’s Feather Bed” was next followed by “Matthew”. The only thing surprising to me was that there was not a big reaction to the song “Matthew.” I think many of the audience members were Kansas City Symphony concert goers and weren’t aware of the local references in the lyrics of that song. Because when I went to a John Denver concert in Kansas City, MO many years earlier the audience just went wild when he sang about... ”a Kansas wheat field.” They loved having John refer to our local area here in the heartland of the nation. “Fly Away” was done beautifully with Annie singing the harmony. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” could not be left out and “Calypso” came next. Jim ended the concert on a quiet note with the beautiful “Poems, Prayers and Promises.” http://www.kcsymphony.org http://www.JimCurryMusic.com From: The Rocky Mountain High Newsletter - May 2009 <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*> <*>