On the face of it, John Denver was an unlikely candidate for pop stardom. He achieved fame with a message of wide-eyed optimism at a time when the U.S.A. was wracked by political scandals, economic uncertainty and the after-effects of the Vietnam War. His boyish looks and wholesome persona went against the grain of a society obsessed with hipness.
Denver provided an alternative vision and millions responded to it. A veteran of the folk movement (including a stint with the Chad Mitchell Trio), he emerged as a positive voice who could reach across the generational divide with his music.
Included in this definitive set of John Denver's recordings are his many gold and platinum-selling LPs including Poems, Prayers and Promises (with the hits "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Sunshine on My Shoulders"), Rocky Mountain High and Windsong (with such enduring compositions as "Annie's Song" and "I'm Sorry") as well as later forays into country and pop, all of which contain hidden gems worthy of deeper investigation.
A highlight of this set is a true rarity, the 1966 LP John Denver Sings, a privately pressed, limited-run album released only to John's friends and family. The recording captures Denver's youthful idealism and guileless spirit qualities that remained a part of his music until his tragic death in a 1997 plane crash.
The most complete package to date of John Denver's The Complete Studio Albums.Contains 24 original RCA albums released between 1969 and 1986, plus Denver's rare privately pressed 1966 LP, John Denver Sings. Many of these albums have never been available on CD. Each individual album is packaged in a replica mini-LP sleeve reproducing that album's original cover art.
A follow up to The Studio Albums 1996-2007 release in October 2021, is a second collection of Mark Knopfler studio albums, including Get Lucky (2009), Privateering (2012), Tracker (2015) and Down The Road Wherever(2018) plus a collection of studio b-sides and bonus tracks and two previously unreleased songs – ‘Back In The Day’ and ‘Precious Voice From Heaven’. Audio has been overseen by original mastering engineer Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. This is a mini-vinyl style 6CD collection in a clamshell-style box. Original studio albums housed in gatefold sleeves with folded printed lyric sheets. Bonus disc in single sleeve wallet with lyrics insert, plus 5 art cards.
Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection was a multi-volume set of recordings released by the Smithsonian Institution. Released in 1990, the collection contains 100 tracks deemed to be significantly important to the history of country music.