John Denver
"Christmas at the Opry"
Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TN
1993-12-09

Lineage: Audience Tape > ??? > WAV > Speed Correction > Track Splitting > WAV > Trader's Little Helper > FLAC Level 8

Setlist:

Disc 1

01. The Twelve Days of Christmas (Traditional)
02. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (John F. Coots; Haven Gillespie)
03. Aspenglow
04. The Marvelous Toy (Tom Paxton)
05. A Baby Just Like You
06. Opening Comments
07. Christmas Like a Lullaby
08. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Johnny Marks)
09. Away in a Manger (Traditional)
10. Jingle Bells (James Pierpont; Tom Paxton)
11. What Child Is This? (William C. Dix)
12. Please, Daddy (Bill Danoff)
13. Intro to Falling Leaves
14. Falling Leaves
15. Alfie, the Christmas Tree
16. Silent Night (Franz Gruber; Joseph Mohr; John F. Young)
17. Christmas for Cowboys (Steve Weisberg)
18. Grandma's Feather Bed (Jim Connor)

Disc 2

01. Rocky Mountain High
02. Take Me Home, Country Roads (Bill Danoff; Taffy Nivert)
03. Back Home Again
04. Homegrown Tomatoes (Guy Clark)
05. Band Introduction > Intro to Matthew
06. Matthew
07. Intro to Whispering Jesse
08. Whispering Jesse
09. Eagles and Horses
10. A Country Girl in Paris [End Cut]
11. Intro to Shanghai Breezes
12. Shanghai Breezes
13. For You
14. Intro to The Ballad of Gary Hart
15. The Ballad of Gary Hart (Tom Paxton)
16. Intro to What Are We Making Weapons For
17. What Are We Making Weapons For?
18. Annie's Song
19. Calypso [Beginning Cut]
20. Perhaps Love [End Cut]

Total Duration: 121 minutes and 26 seconds

Band:

John Denver - Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals
Jim Horn - Flute; Saxophone; Recorder
James Burton - Lead Guitar
Glen D. Hardin - Piano
Jerry Scheff - Electric Bass
Michito Sanchez - Drums; Percussion
Nashville Chamber Orchestra - Orchestra
St. Joseph Children's Choir - Vocals on disc 1, tracks 8-16

Notes:

This is the second of the Christmas concerts I'll share on DIME this Christmas (DIME id for the first one from 1989 is 549072). Fortunately, this one has much better sound quality than the previous one. John Denver did a lot of Christmas tours after 1988. One of these Christmas shows from 1996 would later be released as "Christmas in Concert", but most of his Christmas shows are not released. Hope you'll enjoy this recording!

This recording has some historical value, not only because it's a Christmas concert, but it's also the second only time John Denver performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Though John has achieved great success on the country music charts, he was not so well-received by Nashville country music industry, probably because of his sweet voice and folk roots. However, he seemed to be welcome by the Nashville audience. I love the way the audience reacted when he sang "Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain..." It's also one of the few times Jim Horn reunited with John after his departure in 1992.

The first set is mainly Christmas songs and the second set is "as far from Christmas as you can get". The "furthest" one is Tom Paxton's ballad of Gary Hart, where John not only covered the song, but also borrowed Tom's stage banter: "Compared to what?" It's also possible that Tom got it from John - who knows!

John Denver's first performance at the Opry was in 1976, but I don't know if a recording exists.

You can visit my "John Denver Setlist Archive" page at http://ddpro.ucoz.com/setlists/johndenver/ for more information. The setlists of all John Denver recordings I know will all be posted there.

I've just noticed that I also have Christmas shows by John Prine and Tom Paxton, though those shows would only include one or two songs about Christmas. I'll try to get them ready for this Christmas, or I'll have to upload them next year...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Do not sell this recording.
Enjoy and feel free to share it anywhere.
Support the artists by purchasing their official releases and going to their live shows.
You can purchase some officially released soundboard recordings on John's official webstore at https://johndenver.bandcamp.com/.