Favorite Live Albums: An Evening With John Denver

John Denver Concert One of my favorite live albums is An Evening With John Denver. Denver recorded the double album on August 26 through September 1, 1974 at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles during a time when his career was soaring. The album reveals an artist confident in his choices before a crowd hanging on every note. Additionally, the album also has special meaning for me.

In the early 1970s, we saw and heard John Denver everywhere. In 1971, he scored a hit with “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” In 1972, he released “Rocky Mountain High,” followed by four number one hits in 1974-75 (“Sunshine on My Shoulders,” “Annie’s Song,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and “I’m Sorry”).

Denver also was beginning an acting career, including an appearance on McCloud in 1973. In 1975, he won the Entertainer of the Year Country Music Association Award.

The Television Special

An Evening With John Denver appeared as a television special, winning the 1974-75 Emmy for Outstanding Special, Comedy-Variety or Music. Watching the show now on YouTube, I’m reminded that there were of course additional parts of the show that do not appear on the double album, like appearances by Jacques Cousteau and Danny Kaye.

The special begins with Denver flying an airplane by himself. It would be the same way he would die decades later in 1997.

“An Evening With John Denver” Through the Years

Denver continued to record and tour until his death. And I would periodically listen to new music from him, but those amazing successful years in the 1970s must have had a special resonance for him. He gave joy to a lot of people in those years, including me.

Sometimes it is hard for a reviewer to separate a personal connection from the objective perspective. And that is especially true when I think of this album, which remains one of my favorite live albums. Yet, I cannot say whether or not it objectively is one of the best. All I know is what the album means to me.

Although the album was recorded during the summer months, it remains a winter album for me. Denver released the album in February of 1975. And my mom bought me the album at a local five-and-dime store during that especially snowy Ohio winter. I listened to An Evening With John Denver repeatedly through several school snow days.

Since then, I have periodically returned to An Evening With John Denver throughout my life. Changing technology has altered the ways I’ve listened to it. The album is among the few I have saved in LP form, but I subsequently owned cassette, CD, and MP3 forms of the album too. Later versions added some additional bonus recordings, but for the most part, the recording is still the same for me.

Now, listening to An Evening With John Denver as it streams from my uploaded collection on Google Play, I cannot help thinking back to the first times I played the record in a warm house as the winter winds blew. In it, there remains something comforting for me, like a cup of hot chocolate after shoveling snow.

All of the people who lived in that house where I first played the album are gone except for me. But I am listening to Denver sing now in my own house this winter, looking out the window at the snow while my wonderful wife is downstairs. And I cannot help but think of the thread between that winter in 1975 and now.

One of the powers of music is the connections it brings us — and the way it can bring us home.