asking if Sr. John Denver was going to be touring in the USA any
time soon. By the time their response came, the only concert near
me had already passed and the concert arena I usually go to SPAC
[Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate NY] was not on the
list. I was very upset! Since 1978 until 1992 -- every other year, he
had been coming to this particular indoor/outdoor concert arena. I
was suffering from HUGE withdrawals. 3 years is a long time to
wait for another concert.
On the schedule I noticed a concert to be held in the state of
Virginia and soon thereafter convinced my mum to go with me. I
know she thought me crazed, however, she wanted to see JD almost
as much, if not more than I did. I worked on the plans to get us
down there. We decided to 'ride the rails' to get there and back. I
knew it would be 7 hours each way and we would only be doing this
in 2 days, but still there was no stopping me. I got a reservation at a
Days Inn -- a rather nice, but cheap place to stay.
I began working on my JD outfit, which consists of a sweatshirt
with a big colored picture of Sr. JD with various other things
painted on such as the sun and a heart. The jeans I wore are
painted down the back side with connecting hearts while the front
says John Denver Take Me Home. Again my mum thought me
crazed and she told me that she would not stand near me for fear of
the stares I may and DID get. [Oddly enough, the stares I got gave
people the chance to come and talk to me about my clothes and I
met some very nice Sr. JD fans that way.]
As the time of our trip neared, I grew more excited. My mum on
the other hand caught some sort of virus and was sick. She insisted
on going, sick or not. Now that is what I call a die-hard fan!
We sat at the train station waiting for our train to arrive. In a few
moments we boarded our train and soon found out that it was an
express train. It only took 2 hours instead if 3 hours to get down to
NYC. We had our breakfast of bagels, cream cheese and tea with us.
As we ate, the conductor came over and started talking to my mum
which made her not think of being sick.
In NYC, we had a 45 minute layover. When we boarded the
second train, mum started getting worse. She laid down on a couple
of seats and went to sleep while I listened to Sr. JD on my walkman.
I brought all my Sr. JD cassettes and my journal so I could write all
this down. Mum slept for about 2 hours and woke up hungry so she
had a light lunch. Finally we arrived in Virginia.
Our cab driver was there to meet us and drop us off at our hotel.
He said he would return at 5:30 pm to take us to the concert. We
readied ourselves to go to the concert while I played "An Evening
With JD" ...It was like the concert had already started.
Mum said she was feeling much better and I was glad. We ate a
great dinner and then our cab driver brought us down to the
concert hall. The theater that was small intimate and cozy. Outside
the theater, everyone was gathering, talking about Sr. JD and the
excitement seemed to grow by leaps and bounds. [I KNOW I WAS
EXCITED!] I could not wait to get my seat.
The doors opened up and we were let in. The stage was set up in a
square with Machito Sanchez's percussion section in the back just
off to the right of where Sr. JD would be standing. The band was not
out there yet, but you could tell from the position of the instruments
where they would be placed. There were guitar players on either
side of JD with the mandolin player off to the back right. Much to
my surprise a baby grand piano was on the left near the front. Sr.
JD guitars were not there yet, but they soon appeared on their
stands.
We had seats in row 25 which was great because we have always
been either on lawn seats or very far back inside at SPAC. Either
way you look at it Sr. JD always looked small in size. A lady sitting
near us told us that if in the intermission there were empty seats up
front people could ask to move up. [I did hope for that, but no such
luck the house was packed.]
[Some people sitting in the back section after about the 3rd song
just got up and left. I could not believe it. It was not only annoying,
but also very RUDE. I can just imagine was Sr. JD was thinking,
after all you could see and hear the whole audience from the stage.
Sr. JD professional that he was just kept on playing as though
nothing happened.]
Finally the house lights went down a clue to Sr. JD's arrival. The
out came the band and the audience went crazed. From the
loudspeakers you heard, "Ladies and Gentlemen, here at the
Landmark Theatre in Richmond, Virginia, it gives us great
pleasure to welcome back to our stage MR. JOHN DENVER."
Out onto the stage he walked all smiles and laughter. I was thrilled
more than words can say. The applause was deafening. Oddly
enough the 1st thing my mum said was, "Did he have to wear such a
loud orange shirt?", to which I replied, "I did not come here to
critique his clothes and is that all you can say?" She laughed and so
did I. The thuderous applauses was good to hear. [I clapped my
hands into blisters that night.]
Since he had entitled this the "Country Roads Tour" can you
guess which song he sung 1st? hehe. He played a few song and then
told some stories, the 1st of which was the driving song of Merry
Old England being CR and all. It was good to hear him speak.. He
was definetly "BACK HOME AGAIN", right indeed where he
belonged. His voice was sweeter and better then ever before. He
even said that he thought his voice was very strong.
During the entire concert, he sang a few songs and then stopped
to tell a story or 2, like the Corey Swopes - horse lady story.. I heard
this before, but it always made me laugh. At one point he went o to
talk about identifying a country song. It went like this: "How can a
person tell if a song is a country song? Well, I'll tell you. You'll
know a country song if it has lyrics like this, "How can I miss you if
you if you won't never leave?" or "How come MY dog only barks
when I come around and not when you do?" Then he did the
country song playing backwards bit and the audience let out a howl.
Then he began, "I am going to demonstrate how you can identify a
country song by playing one, but I am not going to tell you the title,
I am just going to sing and let you guess the title from the chorus."
The song started out okay or so it seemed and THEN the chorus
appeared -- the well known by now funny. I was not expecting that.
The audience went into a frenzy and Sr. JD had all he could do to
finish the song to the end. My mum with her bad hearing thought he
said, "Get your dog out of my mouth..instead of Get Your Tongue ..
ecc. [eewwhh!] Anyway.. when I told her what he really said she
was hysterical. We could not stop laughing. She could not believe
that he could sing a song like that. When he finished, he told us: "I
want to assure you that this song comes from no personal
experience of mine", which only served to make the audience roar
again with laughter. I doubt that anyone believed that was a true
statement. All in all, he played 30 songs plus 2 encore songs, but not
before leaving the stage and then returning. I did not want to leave
or have it end, yet we all knew it would, but the memory will live in
me and many others forever.
Compared to going down to Virginia and the concert, the return
trip was nothing special save for the quiet remembrances of the
whole trip. I hope you enjoyed reading this journal entry. If you
want to, leave a message in the guestbook to let me know that you
stopped by.
Peace, Darcey