John Denver was my favourite Country Music singer of all time.

I also consider John Denver more of a folk artist. Many think of his song "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" and assume he was a country artist, but his sound in my opinion was more on the folk side. Actually he was part of the Chad Mitchell Trio I believe it was in the early 60's when Chad Mitchell himself left the folk trio. They called themselves The Mitchell Trio at that point.

 
palides2021 said:
Sorry to show my ignorance, but what's the difference between a folk artist and country singer? Just curious.
Click to expand...
I am not too sure myself, but I believe folk singers are more or less impromtu singers and use simple instruments to make music, whilst, country singers may be more trained and use stringed instruments.
Maybe someone will come along and improve on that!
 
Sometimes when I'm out walking with sun on my shoulder, I think of him. Sadly, he died in a plane crash about a hundred miles south of here. I agree he was not a true folk singer, but many of his songs had a sort of sophisticated folk influence. Two of my favorites, Rocky Mountain High and Country Roads have a folk feel to them, as do others.
 
John Denver was definitely not country. He started out as a folksinger, then became a pop singer.

I used to hate that kind of music when I was 20 or so. John Denver, the Carpenters, etc. I thought of it as syrupy sweet and sentimental. Now I respect the musicianship and songwriting behind it, but it's still not my thing.
 
My wife and I are from Colorado. We always loved John Denver's music. We never really placed him in 'folk' music or 'country' music, to us he bridged the gap and was somewhere in his own style. We actually took our teenage kids (at that time) to see him when we lived in Memphis. We had to drag them to the Orpheum Theater for his show. It is a smaller theater, and we were close up, we could really see John and his band members. We could really feel the music coming off the stage. It was out of this world to watch him perform. He was such a great entertainer, singer, and could really play that 'old guitar' and banjo also. His voice was so clear, and his range was so broad, we still miss him, but love his music.

Interestingly, our two sons who are now grown up with kids of their own, love his music and remember how great that concert really was. I am very glad we were able to take them to watch John Denver perform. I also love 'Anne's Song'...guess what my wife's name is? And I have to mention 'Calypso'...that song takes me to the ocean right away!
 
There are certainly both folk and country elements to John Denver's music. A song such as Leaving On A Jet Plane written by him is certainly more of a folk song and has been done by the likes of many artists that have been considered folk artists. Then there are his songs like Thank God I'm A Country Boy & Country Roads that have that country feel to them. I really feel that most artists whatever genre they perform under would say they have influences from many different areas of music and I would guess to say that would be the same for John Denver as well.
 
He had a wonderful voice and was a very talented song writer. However, I always think he should never have flown that airplane out over the Pacific that he did. Bad mistake. Just like James Dean with his fast car. I know "boys like their toys" but sometimes bad things happen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top