Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The potd came to me via Benjamin whose friend British Dave came across some piggy families while driving in the UK. Benjamin said he would like a piggy. I said two, for friends. Obviously.
We went to see “A Tribute to John Denver” tonight at Lyric Arts. I loved every second of it. I immediately said I wanted to go when I saw the show in the offerings at the theater, but I somehow forgot how much I like John Denver’s music. I have no specific memories of it, but it feels like my whole childhood is rolled up in there. Wonderful. There were a couple songs I didn’t know, which was just plain weird. Weird, because how are there John Denver songs I don’t know, and weird because why would you play songs that I don’t know. Just sayin’. The rest of the songs I knew every word. We were encouraged to sing along a few times and that was good, because I sure wanted to. The lady next to me sang…long tones. Like the changes, or the bottom of the chords, or something. Keith said he thought she was singing pads, which he says he likes to do in his head (in his head!) when he listens to John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album (best of all Christmas albums). Okay. Never heard of them, but there you go. I would have liked if they had stayed in the lady’s head, but on quiet songs when she was most apparent, I plugged my ear on her side. Problem solved.
The lead performer, Layne, took the opportunity to tell us about John Denver’s life and what was happening with him when he wrote several songs. He also told us that John Denver didn’t really fit into any musical genre at the time – not really folk, or pop, or country at the time. He did, however, win CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1975. Charlie Rich was the presenter of the award and when he opened the envelope, instead of just reading the winning name, he took out his lighter from his pocket, lit the whole thing on fire and dropped it to the stage. He was banned from the CMAs for life. John Denver was not there – but accepted his award via satellite without having any idea of what had happened. Wow.
Alexander’s favorite, The King’s Thai Restaurant, is on the way to our theater. He plays trivia three minutes away from King’s on Wednesday nights, so it worked perfectly for us to meet for dinner. Everything was delicious.
