Jim Curry’s John Denver Tribute is NC Rep’s First Live Performance for 2021

By TR Robertson
The wonderful, inspiring, and memorable music of John Denver, as presented by Jim Curry’s John Denver Tribute Band, took center stage recently at Solana Beach’s North Coast Repertory Theatre in “Take Me Home – a Tribute to the Music of John Denver.” Musician Jim Curry on guitar and vocals, his wife Anne on guitar, mandolin and vocals, flutist Diane Ireland and Chris Wills on piano and vocals presented the iconic music of John Denver to a packed theatre audience. This is the groups third trip to the Solana Beach theatre as they performed to the first live show at the theatre since March of 2020. The sold-out crowd was ready for live entertainment, clapping and singing to the memorable songs Denver made famous during his career. Along the way, Jim and Anne gave personal information about Denver, his history, both personal and musical, and had the audience laughing at the John Denver stories. One of the funnier stories was concerning Denver’s song “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio,” written by Randy Sparks, and the reaction of the people of Toledo to the song’s lyrics and possible lawsuits and giving Sparks credit for writing the song.
The evening featured eighteen of Denver’s songs, featuring numbers like “Rocky Mountain High”, “Rhymes and Reasons” from Denver’s 1969 album, “The Flower That Shattered the Stone”, “Sunshine on My Shoulders”, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and many others. Diane Ireland’s beautiful performance on the flute was featured on several numbers, especially on “Eagles and Horses” where she played an intro piece written by Curry’s son where she played on a special double Native American flute. Pianist Chris Wills was also featured on several Denver songs, such as on “Calypso” written after Denver’s experience with famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau on his exploration ship Calypso. Anne Curry harmonized beautifully with Jim on the Denver songs. Jim pointed out that he sang Denver’s song, “Anne’s Song”, at their wedding, a song Denver had written for his wife Anne. The evenings performance ended with “The Wandering Soul”, a song written by Denver he never recorded. The perfect ending to a chance to be with people once again and to see a live on-stage performance.
The Tribute group heads now to Texas for performances, beginning with the city of Arlington. They return to California in late August with shows in Claremont, California. If interested in more information about the John Denver Tribute group and Jim Curry, go to www.jimcurrymusic.com. For information about the upcoming performances at North Coast Rep go to www.northcoastrep.org.