Roland Kato on the Road with John Denver - the 1975 Spring Concert Tour

On this anniversary of singer and superstar John Denver's death in 1997, Los Angeles Revisited presents a guest post by fellow Angeleno Roland Kato, who was a member of JD's orchestra during a nationwide tour in 1975.

Roland is pictured in the Kent Twitchell mural, "Harbor Freeway Overture" in downtown L.A., as seen below in a couple of photos taken years apart by this blogger while inching up the northbound 110 Harbor Freeway. 

What is his association with this mural?  Roland explains his lifelong "occu-passion" with music, being a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, crossing paths with the likes of Tim Burton, David Hasselhoff, Pee Wee Herman, Yo-Yo Ma...and importantly, his connection to John Denver.  Even the late Jonathan Gold gave a nod to Roland while introducing a restaurant in a 2017 review.  Also more on the mural later down this post:



Three-panel mural of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra,
created between 1991 and 1994

Roland is positioned in the rear of the group,

to your right of the person standing furthest back

My First Big Gig

I was born in East L.A. at the Japanese American Hospital in the suburb of Boyle Heights on February 15, 1953 to parents Hideo and Masaye (Sato) Kato.

Because my sister, Terri, had already started taking violin lessons, that meant I also had to, didn’t it? I posthumously thank my parents for being so accommodating. I first started on violin in the 4th grade at Lockwood Ave. Elementary School, and after a very memorable field trip to the Shrine Auditorium in the 5th grade to hear an excerpted performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute, my fate as a musician was forever sealed. This was the first time I heard a beautiful, live and lush symphonic orchestra!

I attended Thomas Starr King Jr. High (here I switched from violin to viola), then John Marshall High, during which time I was also enrolled in the High School of the Arts program at the California Institute of the Arts (or CalArts, the brainchild of Walt Disney). It was at CalArts where I received my first intensive exposure to orchestral and chamber music and music theory. In 1970, I was accepted into the college-level program and was granted a full scholarship to study privately with renowned violist David Schwartz of the Yale Quartet earning my BFA and MFA degrees.




John Marshall High School Promotional Piece, 1971

As a side note, I brushed elbows with some now-notable schoolmates or “CalArtians,” like Ed Harris, Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Don Cheadle, and even David Hasselhoff; however, one in particular stands out: Paul Rubens, who often stood guard in front of the CalArts cafeteria and absolutely loved taunting onlookers. It was a first for me to be taunted by any negligée-clad person for just rolling my eyes. Who would have known he would later hone his theatre craft into the memorable character, Pee Wee Herman?

But I digress! To say CalArts was an eye-opening experience for the uninitiated is putting it mildly. It seems my life path was steered towards people in high places and especially Rocky-Mountain-High places, when I was allowed to leave school to tour with John Denver in 1975 on his 6-week Spring Tour through the U.S.

Because I was living the secluded college life of a poor student way out in what was once a very desolate Newhall, with its onion farms and long stretches of nothing but the Saugus Café, Tip’s Coffee Shop, and no car nor TV, I hadn’t a clue who John Denver was. All that changed when I was selected as one of a 5-member core of principal players, whose duty it was to oversee our own musicians du jour throughout this 28-city adventure. I met so many wonderful people on this tour and am sorry I haven’t stayed connected to them.

Our tour started in Mobile, Alabama and after a few of the concerts, I could understand why John Denver had such captive audiences. His natural abilities of musicianship, technique and earnestness won him many fans who would crowd the large college venues or stadiums to capacity.

Our tour transport was very special. We flew on a private jet (a Boeing 720 called The Starship) owned by singer Bobby Sherman and his manager. This jet was not configured like your normal jet. All the seating in the front were long sofas (with seat belts!) along the walls of the plane and in the rear were two small bedrooms with fake fireplaces! I loved all the catered meals we had onboard! Quality food for this college student was a rare commodity, so please excuse my food-centric tendencies.

My fellow tour colleague Phil Ayling recounts a story told to him by Bianca (one of our three flight attendants), regarding a near disaster while flying on this jet with Led Zeppelin, “Their drummer John Bonham (who died in his early 30’s) had tried to open the plane door while they were in flight. He was completely loaded, and it took both stewardesses to restrain him. She said that the other band members were also loaded and were just laughing, but if one of them had decided to help John open the plane door, they would have been in real trouble!”

I’m happy to report we did not experience any craziness like that on our flights! The only terrible incident I recall was a very turbulent entry into Minneapolis, where our jet made sudden rollercoaster-like dives and jolts during an epic thunderstorm. For a first-time flying experience it certainly was initiation by fright. To my knowledge, no one lost their cookies!

This grueling tour wasn’t all hard work! When we arrived in Arizona, about six days before the tour’s end, John D. arranged to rent a go-cart track for the entire touring entourage! It appears this event was well-planned and we even got blue souvenir T-shirts that read, “John Denver 1st Annual Phoenix 100”. John loved fast moving things like cars and planes and so it was expected that his competitive spirit would surface. I think I managed to get his adrenaline going when the two of us were neck in neck for the finish line at one point during the afternoon. It was a great way to let off a little stress! (By the way, I let him win, ha-ha.) This was a wonderful social event where I got a chance to meet the infamous Annie (his wife) and their baby son Zack.

For every performance, the opening act for JD was a six-member group called Liberty. I’m not certain, but I think they were based in Canada. The only member of the group with whom I had conversations was bass and dobro player Larry Gottlieb who was the son of a very famous couple, (in L.A. classical music circles) violinist, Eudice Shapiro and cellist, Victor Gottlieb. Eudice was for many years a soloist at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado & later the first woman to perform as concertmaster in a major movie studio, RKO. She occupied that position for 23 years until she became a respected professor of the string faculty of the University of So. Ca. for 50 years. Her husband (who died too early, age 42) was an extremely gifted cellist and principal of the Aspen Festival cello section. He also performed as principal cello of the RKO studio orchestra. Unfortunately, I’m sorry to say that Larry’s band Liberty, had a short shelf life for reasons I do not know.

Liberty's sole LP from Roland's Collection

Some of the notable studio musicians who joined the Los Angeles portion of the tour were very active members of what was familiarly known by some in Hollywood as The Wrecking Crew (coined by drummer Hal Blaine). This group of accomplished and unrecognized musicians was memorialized in a recent movie documenting their innumerable and dedicated backup for many rock-and-roll groups during the 50’s-70’s. The three Crew members I vividly remember from our tour were bassist Dick Kniss, and drummers-percussionists Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer.

Our “fearless leader,” well-known conductor, composer, and arranger Lee Holdridge couldn’t have been a nicer guy. His beautiful arrangements were fun to play, and during the course of the tour he often revised some of our parts by adding little solos (probably to keep us engaged)! I really appreciated that. The other four musicians in our core group of five were violinist Elliot Fisher, cellist Dana Reese, woodwind doubler Phil Ayling, and french hornist Jim Atkinson. Sadly, I believe Elliot died in an auto accident while on vacation in Europe and I have not heard hide nor hair of Dana; however, I have occasionally seen Phil and Jim over the past 43 (e-gad!) years since our tour! Time certainly flies when you’re having a good time!


Roland has generously shared the amazing, rare photographs below, in which he says he likely took using a 35mm German-made Kodak Retina camera.  Sometime after reading an earlier post about JD on this blog, Roland remembered the photos he snapped from that year:




A portion of a typical audience seen here, stage right

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Conductor Lee Holdridge waiting to do a sound check
(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Over the past 40 years, Roland has played on various sessions that Lee scored.

Lee Holdridge before the downbeat

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Bassist Dick Kniss

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Drummer Earl Palmer; guitarist, possibly John Sommers; percussionist Hal Blaine

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

The five core orchestra people on this Spring tour also played on subsequent recording sessions at the RCA studio on Sunset & Wilcox (that building is now the L.A. School of Film) of the new material played on the tour. Those recordings which were probably made in ’75-76 may have ended up on later albums. 

Drummer Earl Palmer between tunes

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Cellist Dana Reese
(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

The view from Roland's stand of JD talking to the audience

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)



JD boarding a bus

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Lee Holdridge and concertmaster Elliot Fisher
(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

JD leaving a hotel

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

A Ping Pong Break Between Concerts

Earl Palmer in a game of ping pong

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Dick Kniss during a match

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Percussionist, Hal Blaine and woodwind doubler, Phil Ayling
(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

JD playing ping pong

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

JD victorious?  Or defeated?

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Go-Carting in Phoenix

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

JD raring to go

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)



(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

JD (white T-shirt), Hornist Jim Atkinson (sunglasses dark T-shirt), woodwind player,
Phil Ayling (far right). Unidentified are three men talking to JD
(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

JD and his infant son Zack, resting after go-carting

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Annie at the go-cart track

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Baby Zack & JD (Annie is out of the photo frame)

(Photo courtesy of Roland Kato)

Roland's Career with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

(Photo courtesy of Dana Ross)

The following run-down of his career was compiled by Roland himself.  But this blogger will first mention something else - in 2017 the late Times food critic Jonathan Gold reviewed a Sawtelle district restaurant "Kato" this way:  "The restaurant is named for the Green Hornet sidekick played by Bruce Lee in the '60s TV series, although I was kind of hoping that it was named for the Los Angeles viola virtuoso Roland Kato."


Described by the Los Angeles Times as “a brilliant virtuoso, playing with the perfect combination of energy and eloquence,” internationally acclaimed viola recitalist and soloist Roland Kato has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1976 with Sir Neville Marriner. He was appointed principal viola by lona Brown in 1987. He has also held the principal position in many orchestras including the L.A. Opera Orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony, the California Chamber Symphony and the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra.

A sought-after chamber musician, Roland participates in many chamber series in Los Angeles. He plays with the Santa Clarita Chamber Players and performed with Pacific Serenades in that ensemble’s Carnegie Hall debut. He was invited to appear as guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has also performed with the New York New Music Ensemble. He was honored to join Yo-Yo Ma in a chamber music concert benefiting cancer research.

Roland has appeared as soloist/recitalist on both viola and viola d’amore throughout the United States and abroad for LACO. In November 2002, Roland and LACO concertmaster Margaret Batjer performed the West Coast premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Double Concerto in B minor for Violin and Viola. Internationally, he has appeared at the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico; Festival Internacional de Musica in Costa Rica and the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival in Bonefro, Italy. His festival appearances in the US include the Grand Canyon Chamber Music, Oregon Bach, Carmel Bach and San Luis Obispo Mozart festivals; the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego; Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, the Strings in the Mountains Festival in Colorado, Sitka, AK; and the Garth Newel Festival in Hot Springs, VA.

Roland produced the first-ever recording of Telemann’s Quatrieme Livre de Quatours, a collection of six chamber pieces performed by the period instrument ensemble American Baroque, on the Koch Classics International label. This Grammy-nominated recording has just been re-released on the Music and Arts label. His discography also includes recordings alongside Ransom Wilson and Marni Nixon, and recordings of music by Tania French and Mark Carlson. The Carlson recording, Hall of Mirrors, was awarded the Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for 2001. In 2003, Carlson dedicated his viola sonata, On the Coming of War to Roland and Pianist Joanne Pearce Martin. It was subsequently recorded in 2011.

Roland’s arrangements and transcriptions have been performed worldwide. His transcription of Prokofiev’s Music For Children was recently given its New York premiere, and his arrangement of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite was premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC by the New Hampshire-based Apple Hill Chamber Players. The Washington Post wrote, “[Kato] surprisingly caught the subtleties of the composer’s sparely tinted orchestral brush strokes and poetic watercolor depictions of the five fairy tales.” This arrangement received its European premiere in Ireland and has subsequently been performed worldwide.

As a musical representative of the United States, Roland has twice joined with principals and members of the Berlin Philharmonic to play symphonic music in European capitals under the sponsorship of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Most recently, the musicians donated their services for the performances of the Verdi Requiem in Paris and Berlin to benefit orphans of the war in Bosnia.

In 2016, after being a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for 40 years Roland decided to call it quits. Two years prior he had stopped doing any and all commercial work which spanned 1,000’s of motion picture scores, TV shows, commercial spots and rock and roll sessions. Sadly, it became too painful to play because of his osteoarthritis. He doesn’t miss most of the music making, but he does miss playing chamber music. He’s not down and out completely though. He does still enjoy his music arranging and has gotten back into that a bit and can’t wait to pursue another fine restaurant that’s either around the corner or in some exotic city far away. Any interest in hearing about his travel and scrumptious foodie experiences from around the world?


The Public Mural "Harbor Freeway Overture"

Roland kindly obliged this blogger's request to identify the individuals on the mural.

He explained that the mural was funded by ANA Airlines. Their CEO, Tachi Kiuchi was also a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra board in 1991 when it was painted by muralist Kent Twitchell. After 27 years, Roland says Julie Gigante is the only remaining person in the mural who is still in the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

As an interesting side note, Roland's cousin Waynna Kato is in another early mural painted by Mr. Twitchell depicting notable Otis art students. Roland has never seen it in the flesh, but believes the mural is in Torrance.

Torrance mural

Visit the earlier posts on JD:  John Denver in L.A. and YouTube and The Sixties and John Denver at the Grammy Museum Los Angeles.

The Sixties and John Denver - at the Grammy Museum Los Angeles

The life and music of John Denver was on exhibit the first half of 2017 - which this blogger finally visited a few days before the show ended near the end of July.  This visit also provided opportunity to tour another new exhibit, under the same roof, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Monterey International Pop Festival, a historic three-day concert that took place during the Summer of Love.  Other recent blog posts covered the counterculture movement in Los Angeles/Monterey and San Francisco.

The Denver exhibition was held in a significant year - the 20th anniversary of JD's accidental death, to commemorate soon - October 12th.

JD settled in L.A. in 1964, and he was immersed in the folk music scene where he crossed paths with other musicians, some of whom later became involved with the 1967 pop festival.

If JD were alive, he'd probably chuckle that this exhibit ran alongside the Pop Festival - some of his experiences ran parallel to other Festival musicians:  JD once sang (tried out) with Roger McGuinn, Guy Clark and David Crosby when the latter three were in the midst of forming a new band (The Byrds).  JD felt so square and out of their leagues.  JD also auditioned for a part in the TV show about the antics of a fictional musical group, the Monkees.  Folk rock was emerging, but JD continued to practice his craft as a traditional folk singer.  Yet he also spent a lot of time at the Troubadour where the McGuinn, Clark, Crosby and the likes of Elton John found their first followings with the new music genre.

[Update October 12, 2018:  Read a recent post about JD's 1975 Spring tour.]

The decade of the 1960s was punctuated by the arrival of the Beatles, and soon after, the rise of the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, and many, many others.  Some artists were bred in L.A. while San Francisco was the hotbed for others.  Southern and northern California-based artists formed the core of the groundbreaking musical celebration, the Monterey International Pop Festival (Hendrix and Ravi Shankar were two of the exceptions.)  Angeleno and L.A. music producer Lou Adler along with John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas were primary organizers of the festival.

Fifty years later, Adler lends his voice, persona, and archival collections to form this exhibition.

John Denver in L.A. and YouTube

As a teenager in the early 1970s I often strolled Hollywood Boulevard.  I would shyly pop into a record store, and the boulevard had quite a few record stores.  I bought my first and only John Denver album - it was probably in the bargain bin - Whose Garden Was This.  I was a young airhead, but I understood the environmental message behind the album title song.

Aside from this record and all the radio play for his hit songs, I never delved into his music beyond this point, nor did I ever attend his concert.  When I learned the news of his death in 1997, I am sure I took pause with some sadness. 

Christmas 2013 I received an iPhone 5.  It has very good Internet connection.  I had been for a long while holding onto an iTunes gift card, so one of the first songs I bought was "Fly Away" because of the appealing duet with Olivia Newton-John.  (I remember viewing the TV special when it was broadcast - as he sang she stood receded to the back of the stage - I took curious notice, because at the time she had numerous hit songs, yet she humbly sang like a back-up singer - I am not sure she was even given an introduction.)

The audio and visual clarity of the iPhone plus the reliable web connection corraled my attention-deficit.  One night I decided to find John Denver on YouTube.  One of the first entries to pop up is a very recent, complete documentary "John Denver:  Country Boy" by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Denver's life - released and coinciding with his 70th birth anniversary on December 31, 2013.  After viewing the entire documentary, I began to remember his talent. 

My renewed appreciation and interest is quenched by the abundance of YouTube videos.  His body of work was huge.  Available for viewing are his television specials; Tonight Show guest host appearances; concerts of course; interviews; Grammy host segments; his early music career as a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio; Muppets appearances; singing to audiences in Russia and China; segments of his live show in England; and a wonderful Earth Day tribute concert hosted by Newton-John in 2011.  I heard Denver's varying versions of his own songs; I listened to him articulate on causes he supported; I listened to him disclose bits of his personal life and how he came to write "Annie's Song".  I watched the American and international news segments resulting from his plane crash; I saw the older, mature Denver enjoying fly-fishing in Alaska and New Zealand.

One can easily follow his career on the Web from the early years into the later years; one can see the metamorphosis from a young, enthusiastic, ball-juggling newbie, basking in the limelight, towards the mature, more stoic persona, hardened by the critics, detractors and the price of fame; one can see the changing features in his appearance - the distinct hair/granny glasses and slender frame then went to short hair that revealed his eyes and ears to the sometimes mustache and dark beard and thicker waistline of a 50-year-old man with a great hairline.

I suppose these post-death pursuits could be compared to the fans seeking Elvis, Michael, Whitney, and others.  John Denver, though, had designs on many humanitarian projects, including his own Windstar Foundation - a website like YouTube enables so many facets of the diamond that was John Denver to shine on.

In the years that followed his death, we were in store for major technological advances as well as jarring world events:  the World Wide Web and personal computers would evolve into ubiquity; 9/11 would occur (John Denver the aviator would have been appalled); massacres would take place in Denver's home state at Columbine and Aurora; heartbreak would not be denied by the murders at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut.

Had Denver been meant to be alive in his 70th year, I am sure he would have been performing at the New Forum in Inglewood, California, which featured The Eagles in the first concerts at venue's January re-opening.  Denver performed at the original Forum for five concerts (three dates back-to-back in May, 1975 and two dates in May, 1978).  A compilation of his concerts by Barbara Hoehn is posted on the John Denver fan club of Spain.  [Update 10-12-18 this link is no longer available.] As his popularity began to escalate, the first big L.A. concert was at the Greek Theatre (four shows in September, 1972).  He then had seven shows back-to-back at the Universal Amphitheatre in July, 1973, and he returned the following summer for another seven shows).  Then the Amphitheatre was a very new concert hall; later re-named the Gibson Amphitheatre, the building was demolished last September.

While his commercial successes waned in the 1980s and 1990s, he was stellar performer.  His classic appeal drew his fans to at least 12 concerts during these decades: nine shows at the Greek Theatre (two shows in May, 1984, three shows in October, 1988; two shows in September, 1990, and two shows in late July-early August, 1992.)  He always maintained a heavy concert schedule, and his final three shows in Los Angeles were at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra in July, 1996.

Denver came to L.A. in the mid-1960s and gained decent employment in the folk music scene.  He performed at Ledbetter's beginning in Fall, 1964, at 20 years old.  As a teen living in Fort Worth, Texas, he ran away from home, actually drove away, by hitting the open roads to Los Angeles.  His plan was to find shelter with family friends, but he got mixed up on the fact that they lived in Long Beach, not L.A.  His dad took him back home.

Only a finite amount of information on Denver can be found on the Internet; I visited the Whittier Public Library to check out his autobiography Take Me Home where I found revelations about his family, his youth, his personal life, his dislike of confrontations, and his paramount desire to touch the world with his lyrics and songs.

I often read on the Internet that he had the ability to render a large audience to silence with just his voice and his guitar.  His aspiration was achieved a hundredfold before his life concluded.

On YouTube a matured Denver singing "The Wings That Fly Us Home" is very moving - his voice and delivery is far from the description of early critics labeling him sappy and the Mickey Mouse of Rock & Roll.  Music historians out there - correct me if I am wrong - Denver made a lot of "firsts" artistically - collaborating outside of his genre (opera artist Placido Domingo), recording duets with other big name singers (Newton-John), and touring China as the first Western singer to do so.  He may have been an early innovator in blending orchestral arrangements with his folksy-country-soft-rock ballads.

Today there continues to be John Denver festivals in Colorado, particularly in October, to commemorate the anniversary of his death.  Tribute concerts are not uncommon in American cities.  Numerous tribute singers seem to genuinely keep his music out there.  The pianist for the band, talented Chris Nole, released "Fly Away, Piano Perspectives - The Music of John Denver" in 2007, and the compositions are exquisite.  In 2013, a CD release "The Music is You" showcases his music by a variety of respected musicians in the industry.  A wallpaper image is available for download from johndenver.com:

Earlier this month the state of West Virginia moved to establish "Take Me Home Country Roads" as the its official song.

In 2007 "Rocky Mountain High" became legally sanctioned as a state song for Colorado.

The photography of Denver is on exhibit in a Denver, Colorado gallery.

An archival trove of radio recordings and interviews have been made available on a website called BigO.  They were made during the Skip Weshner Show in Los Angeles, 1970.  (The BigO webpage found by the above-mentioned link also mentions another show from 1971 for which a request needs to be made to the website in order to get the tracks.)

To my knowledge there are no landmarks or commemoratives in L.A. to the late artist.  He was once invited to have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but he never followed through with that honor.  There is not any radio air play in L.A. for Denver's former hits today - for such a diverse and creative city, the city's music stations have very boring, dull formulas for what they air.

I am getting ready to plunk down the $9.99 to buy my copy of "Oh God" on iTunes soon.  I will enjoy it.

[Far Out! L.A. and Hollywood will make a huge redeeming leap this Friday, October 24th, 2014 when a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame will be presented posthumously to John Denver!  Woo hoo!]


October 24, 2014

JD's star is about half a block east of La Brea Avenue, not far from this monument below.

Before the event began, his songs could be heard along the boulevard. (If your screen here is blank, it might mean that you can only view the video below on a desktop computer.  I cannot see it on my tablet...)

 

Shown below before the ceremony is daughter Jesse Belle Denver, and the gentleman seated in the dark sports jacket is probably Ron Deutschendorf, JD's younger brother.  Son Zak was present, but not shown here.

As the ceremony moved along, Jesse Belle Denver and Joe Henry shared the stage momentarily.

Jesse was emotional in a tribute speech about her father.  Also present in the audience was her mom, Cassandra Delaney.  You can see the entire ceremony on YouTube, on Variety's channel.

Update:  March, 2015:  I found this short video clip I took from my I-Phone - it is brief and shaky, but it shows a moment in time before the award program started - JD's sweet Sunshine on My Shoulders tune was being played - and importantly, the man with the brown suit standing was Zak.  (Again, the video might not be viewable by phone or tablet).

Photograph Exhibit on View

A few miles south of Hollywood Boulevard is a month-long exhibition of JD's photographic works at the Substrate Gallery, a couple of blocks from Paramount Studios.

A billboard seen from Melrose Avenue

Update September 13, 2016 - JD on the Radio!!!

If you have read down to this point, you deserve this treat that I just discovered - the American Veterans Radio station has a two-hour Saturday program dedicated to the songs of JD, hosted by Willie Hoevers! 

The program, "The Music of John Denver," airs on select Saturdays 4 p.m. Eastern Time.  On the radio show one can listen to performances by JD tribute artists from all over the world - original tribute tunes as well as cover songs - along with interspersed chats with the artists.  Of course one will also hear JD sing - which is great because, as I said before, I never hear JD played here in Los Angeles.

The irregularly scheduled program has some archival program recordings available at the Rocky Mountain Foundation for the Performing Arts website.  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the homepage - at the time of this writing, tracks for July 2, July 9, July 23, August 6, August 29, and September 3 are found by click either the left arrow or the right arrow.

Mr. Hoevers is also been an organizer of the annual Aspen festival honoring JD that takes place in mid-October.

Update October 9th, 2017

The latest blog post - the John Denver exhibition at the Grammy Museum, L.A.

Update October 12, 2018

The latest blog post about JD's 1975 Spring tour, includes rare photographs.