Ok, Teresa, you pitched a softball right down my sweetspot with this thread (a little thread drift, but it is playoff season, you know.)

My wife came to believe that I was an okay guy because I like John Denver songs. In the past 5-10 years we have grown to love his music even more. Some wag once said that if you are not a conservative when you are old you don't have a brain, and if you were not a liberal when you were young you didn't have a heart. Well, I find myself in some ways becoming more liberal as I age and one reason is the profound thoughts captured in so much of John's music. John loved the outdoors, and used the natural resources he loved (skiing, fishing, rafting, etc) but he knew we had to protect the environment or all those uses would vanish. As Don said above, his music aged like a fine wine. Some of his earlier stuff is pretty hard to listen to now, but his later songs simply cannot be equaled, in my opinion. The other aspect of his music that has me so mesmerized now is his guitar playing. Much of his playing is based on simple patterns, but John knew just how to vary a pattern, or how to hit one note with just a little more flair, to make a song truly remarkable and memorable.

We have his Wildlife concert and his Harbor Lights concert on cd. What is truly amazing to me is that he performed both concerts when he was over 50 years old, and his voice was stronger in some ways than it was when he first started out. He had a little more trouble with the yodels, but hey, I can't yodel like that and I'm mmumblemumble years old.

I really appreciate Don's comments. I too watch his Wildlife concert and listen to his other concert cds to try and absorb how he communicated with his audience, not just perform for them. My wife got to see him perform. I count it as one of my great losses to have not been able to see him. What a loss.

Thanks for the thread.

Freightdawg.