J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J O R O C K Y M O U N T A I N H I G H O H =============================================== H N The John Denver Internet Fan Club N D D E M O N T H L Y N E W S L E T T E R E N N V N O V E M B E R 1 9 9 5 V E E R Emily Parris emily@sky.net http://www.sky.net/~emily R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents November 1995 John Denver's new ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH - article from Kansas City Star (10/14/95)......................1 MINNEAPOLIS DOES DENVER - JD tribute album to be released in 1996............................2 JD Problems in Jackson, Wyoming Kansas City Star (10/20/95)......................3 alt.fan.j-d terrorized by White Supremacists..........3 "The Drummers of John Denver" by David Stemple........4 John's Tower Restaurant in Snowmass, CO...............5 John Denver WWW Pages and FTP Sites...................6 "Double Jeopardy Ruling Thrown Out" - Aspen Times (7/22/95)............................7 "An Autumn Walk" by Emily M. Parris...................8 DENVERFAN.............................................9 ========================================= John Denver's new ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH Kansas City Star 10/14/95 ========================================= on Cover page...small picture with...."Back home again. John Denver's big star days may be over, but his audience is still growing. See 'Showtime', page 7." by Roger Catlin The Hartford Courant The weather in Aspen is perfect. "Glorious" says the man who named himself after another Colorado city to become the region's best-known booster since the mountains. And why shouldn't the former John Henry Deutschendorf have a sunny outlook at age 51? They're singing his songs again in Coors beer ads. His latest concert, a benefit for the Wildlife Conservation Society, is all over tv (it's still selling in the video stores, and the soundtrack is one of his strongest in years.) John Denver, somehow is hot again. "I don't know to what degree that's true," says Denver. "But it does mean a lot to have a new piece of product out - and to have a structure such as Sony and the Sony legacy people behind me. That's been missing for a lot of years." "Having a major international company behind his career 20 years ago (when he was on RCA) certainly helped, he says, "back when I was the biggest-selling recording artist in the world." Can you cast your mind back to that time? Back when the bespectacled former member of the Chad Mitchell Trio, who sold a song to Peter, Paul and Mary ("Leaving on a Jet Plane") introduced himself with the hit "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in 1971 and hung around the charts for another decade? For all of his songwriting ability, the familiarity of his voice and his presence on television as perhaps the most wholesome entertainer to issue the words "far out," he has struggled to get his music to a wide audience since the '80's. "Radio formats now are so constricted in a sense, it has to be such a more competitive area than it was 20 years ago" Denver says. "Any station that plays any of my songs now are golden-oldies stations. So it's harder than ever to get them to listen to new things." Indeed, even his current success with "The Wildlife Concert", a warm acoustic show recorded in front of an audience in New York was predicated on his playing mostly oldies. "If it was mine to do," Denver says, "the album would have been a little different." Still, broadcasts of "The Wildlife Concert" are doing for Denver what the "Live at the Acropolis" album did for Yanni: Denver has become a hot concert ticket. And he likes how he sounds now in concert. "I'm pleased to show the difference in the way I'm singing now than the way I was singing 15 years ago." Indeed, rather than gloss over such familiar songs as "Rocky Mountain High", he injects more passion into the slight crags that have grown in his voice - as if to emphasize that his course has not changed and his love for the land has only increased. The concert recorded for TV and CD release, of course, was on behalf of the Wildlife Conservation Society. As for the environmental movement today, "I think we're in a difficult place," Denver says. "It's as if the environment has gotten to be old hat for a lot of people, compared to the days when you couldn't pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading about the environment. "And Congress is trying to turn around all the good work that's been done in the 20 years to protect endangered species and to keep clean air clean. And that's a real shame. "We have a generation of young people who for the first time don't think it's going to get better...it's important that we let them know there's a lot of positive things to do out there." Denver continues to write and play new songs, but says "We include most of the things people hope to hear at my concerts - things that are sung in every karaoke bar in the world." ......a large picture from the Wildlife Concert is beside the article. ====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------ October Records will release a JD Tribute CD entitled MINNEAPOLIS DOES DENVER, on January 16th, 1996 - - - 18 Minneapolis bands doing 18 JD favorites - - - Marlee MacLeod/Kristin Mooney.....Follow Me The Hang Ups......................Leaving on a Jet Plane Mango Jam.........................Rocky Mountain High BUG!..............................Calypso John Casey and the Old Possums....Take Me Home, Country Roads Willie Wisely.....................Sweet Surrender Tina and the B-Side Movement......Thank God I'm A Country Boy Holiday Ranch.....................Eagle And The Hawk Beat the Clock....................Sunshine On My Shoulders The Delilahs......................Annie's Song The Honeydogs.....................Back Home Again Rex Daisy/Steeplejack.............Matthew Ademordna Rotavelé................Farewell Andromeda Fat Tuesday.......................Looking For Space Fat Lip...........................Grandma's Featherbed The Found.........................Prisoners Chris Lynch & John Eller..........Song For Spiro Agnew Juggernaut........................Fly Away -------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Greenberg spg@designstein.com Designstein, Inc. 800 Washington Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55401 Check out our site on the World Wide Web: http://www.designstein.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- Kansas City Star 10/20/95 Newsmakers item...... A flight instructor is suing John Denver for a 1994 runway run-in at a Jackson, Wyoming airport. David V. Coyle says Denver's plane, piloted by the singer, taxied into Coyle's Cessna. The propeller of Denver's plane slashed the side of the Cessna. Denver's insurance company paid for the damage but refused to cover Coyle's lost income during the six weeks it took to repair the aircraft, said Coyle's attorney, Keith Goody. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * White Supremacists Terrorize our Newsgroup ------------------------------------------ alt.fan.john-denver has been bothered by white supremacist postings. I don't really know what the solution to this problem is. However, I did succeed in getting one person's account closed by writing to "Postmaster" at their email address. Please write to me with your comments, and feel free to write to the "Postmaster" of any of the offending poster's addresses to complain about them. If we all complain then we may have some luck in getting their email accounts revoked. It is also possible to suppress posts from certain email addresses on some systems. That way you could read the posts from JD fans and not be bothered at all with the people trying to stir up trouble. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================== THE DRUMMERS OF JOHN DENVER by David J. Stemple ========================================================== John Denver has been blessed with some of the greatest music written on the land and has had some of the greatest musicians to play his music for him. Those of you who have heard his "An Evening with John Denver" Album know what I mean from the introductions of each member to the "John Martin Sommers played the fiddle and he wrote that song." There always seems to be magic on the stage whenever you see him or whenever you are listen to his records, cassettes and CD in your own home or on the road. I thought it would be nice being a percussionist myself if we briefly discussed a few of the drummers who have played with John over the years and give them the respect that they deserve. In John's early days most of the drumming was played by Herb Lovelle and in the studio he was also joined by the very famous and now dead Gary Chester. Both Lovelle and Chester were on the quiet side when it came to playing, they used brushes instead of sticks, small triangles and maracas to create the perfect mood for all of John's great songs. Never too much, but once in a while I kind of wonder if the recording man was awake on Greatest Hits - cut 1 of the drummers mike in "Follow Me" and "Poems, Prayers and Poems". Gary Chester left the studio side of recording with John in about 1975. For the "An Evening With John Denver" album John used Herb Lovelle and a studio veteran Hal Blaine to play all drums and percussion for him. Hal has played on over 5,000 records. Herb played the drums and Hal played percussion armed with a slide whistle, shaker, tambourine, congos, suspended cymbal and triangles. Once again Herb seems to get lost in the sound mix but his beat and finese help carry the band to a new level. Following the tour Herb left the band. Hal stayed on and played a few albums on drums and percussion for John. Highlights of Hal Blaine's percussion include his ship bell/triangle on "Calypso", and his awesome hi hat part to "Spirit". When the "Seasons of The Heart" album came out John had a new drummer - "Jerry Carrigan". He was the first player I remember hearing of who would go in and play the drum set part with the band and then when the session was over dub the congo, woodblock and shaker parts. Rarely in the past had this been done with John's music. Hal did it once or twice, but Jerry was doing it all the time. He made it sound like John was using two drummers at once, when it was really an overdub by Jerry. I must admit that I missed a lot of albums in between here and if it hadn't been for the Rocky Mountain High WWW page I would have missed the Wildlife Concert album and John's great drummer on that album - A. Sanchez. He is probably the best drummer I have ever seen play with John in his entire career. He plays for the music and the feelings that the music creates not just for the sake of play fast and loud as many drummers do today. He uses the drum set only when called for and chooses his vast collection of sound effects, congos and shakers whenever he has the chance. Highlights of his playing include "Calypso" when he decides to play the basket shaker for the last chorus instead of playing the congos; the sound effects on the opening song, all the sound effects he used on "Calypso" and of course the triangle part to "Poems Prayers and Poems" as well as the shaker to "Annie's Song" just proves sometimes simple is the best way to express music. He really puts his heart in the music, which is something I wish more drummers today would do. Well there you have it, my mini-history of the drummers of John Denver's career. If you have any questions about my article or want to discuss one of the above drummers with me in great detail, please email me at . David Stemple ================================== THE TOWER MAGIC BAR AND RESTAURANT ================================== John Denver owns a restaurant in Snowmass, Colorado where you can watch magicians perform while you eat. It's at the Snowmass Village Mall. You can't miss it - just look for the tower. =================================== John Denver WWW Pages and FTP Sites =================================== Just a reminder to check out the RMH page and other John Denver sites on the world wide web. Gregory Levin's John Denver Page: "http://www.mts.jhu.edu/~levin/Music/John_Denver/denver.html" Gary Keck's John Denver Page: "http://www.azstarnet.com/~gkeck/music/jd/jd.htm" Rory Young's FTP Site "ftp://austin.fastlane.net/pub/JDenver" Sony Music's JD Page "http://www.music.sony.com/Music/ArtistInfo/JohnDenver/index.html" Most of the pages link to each other as well. So if you find one page, you've found them all! =============================================================== Aspen Times July 22 & 23, 1995 DENVER `DOUBLE JEOPARDY' RULING THROWN OUT, SINGER FACING TRIAL By David Scott Aspen Times Staff Writer District Court Judge Peter Craven has reversed County Court Judge Tam Scott's "double jeopardy" ruling that cleared singer John Denver of drunk-driving charges, officials with the Ninth Judicial District announced Friday. If Craven's ruling stands, Denver will have to stand trial on charges arising from an incident last summer, District Attorney Milt Blakey said. However, Denver's attorney has the right to petition the state supreme court to overturn Craven's decision. Walter Gerash, John Denver's attorney, could not be reached for comment. "It's always been my opinion that the law was pretty clear," Blakey said. "Judge Scott was in error, and apparently Judge Craven agrees with that." In March, Judge Scott granted a motion by Denver's attorney to dismiss charges against the singer. Gerash had claimed that singer was already exposed to punishment on the drunk-driving charge at a license revocation hearing last year. All drunk-driving suspects attend such hearings, and most have their driver's licenses suspended. Denver was allowed to keep his license because a blood-alcohol test, which indicated he was legally drunk, was taken more than two hours after an Aug. 21 accident on Starwood Drive, which led to the drunk-driving charges. Deputy District Attorney Lawson Wills, who has argued the case for Pitkin County, said Friday he was "happy with the decision." Craven supported two out of three of Wills' arguments regarding double jeopardy. In order for double jeopardy to be exist, a defendant must be tried in two separate proceedings, the proceedings must involve the same elements of evidence, and both proceedings must involve punitive, rather than remedial measures, according to Wills. Craven ruled that, while there were indeed two separate proceedings -- the Department of Motor Vehicles hearing and the court case -- they involved different elements and the possible revocation of Denver's license by the motor vehicles officer was not punitive in nature. In his decision, Judge Craven wrote, "Preventing future drunk driving is a remedial goal, and temporary license revocation is a reasonable means to achieve it." ===================================================================== *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* AN AUTUMN WALK by Emily M. Parris An autumn walk is such a delight For the leaves decorate The streets so bright A yellow tree comes into view The sidewalk is strewn With her golden hue Brown and crimson of every shade It's the prettiest season That God ever made Copyright by Emily M. Parris *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* DENVERFAN Discussion ==================== Eric Hasselwander is starting a John Denver Interactive Mailinglist for people who have been bothered by the non-John Denver fans who are posting on alt.fan.john-denver. Write to him at with the heading DENVERFAN if you would like to be included in the discussion. ============================================================= Articles, JD news, stories, etc. are always needed for the Rocky Mtn High newsletter. Please send them in if you would like to see them in RMH. I'd also like story ideas if you think there is a subject we should cover in RMH. If you would like print copies of the KC Star Articles, email me for info. Emily Parris emily@sky.net ============================================================= ENDFILE..... ******************************************************** Rocky Mountain High: The John Denver Internet Fan Club emily@sky.net http://www.sky.net/~emily November 1995 - Issue #19 ********************************************************