John Denver "The Wildlife Concert"

Yes, it's true --- I'm a huge John Denver fan. I'm not an exhaustive collector of anything, but it's been a long time since I've found a JD recording I don't already have. Of all of them, The Wildlife Concert is by far the best collection he ever made. His live stuff is so much better than his studio recordings; I highly recommend this CD set.

It's bizarre how much John Denver songs are woven into my life. I went to see him in concert the first time with my then girlfriend, now wife. I danced my daughter to sleep to his music and had him on a tape player in my son's isolette when he was born early. Every Christmas our staple soundtrack is John Denver and the Muppets. I'm probably the only guy who actually read his autobiography and has seen the movie Oh God (but, thankfully not the sequel Oh God You Devil).

If you like, I'm happy to go into a great deal of boring detail about why I think JD was a good role model in addition to a great singer/composer --- despite his extraordinarly obvious flaws. But this blog is about my stuff, not my world theories, so I'll leave it for another time.