Bloggin' On: Coming Soon to 'A Certain Point of View'

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© 2013 Great Voices Film Company and CDK Films/CDK Productions
Well, hello and welcome once again to another installment of Bloggin' On. It's Thursday, January 2, 2020, and as I write this it's still morning in my corner of Florida. It's a cool, wintry day here, at least by the standards of the subtropics; the temperature outside is 67℉ (20℃) under sunny skies; the forecast calls for a high of 80℉ (26℃), with the nighttime low expected to drop back down to 67℉ (20℃) again.

I recently ordered a few new items from Amazon and another website, all of which are connected to the musical legacy of the late singer/songwriter/activist John Denver. Two are albums: An Evening with John Denver (1975) and John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits (2004), one of which is a collection of live performances from two 1970s-era concert gigs, and the other is a "greatest hits" compilation released seven years after his death in October of 1997.

©,℗ 1975, 2001 Sony Legacy


The third item is the Blu-ray of Kenneth Shapiro's award-winning documentary Great Voices Sing John Denver, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the eponymous 2013 tribute album in which 15 of the world's best opera performers sing some of Denver's most beloved songs. I had hoped to get the actual CD (I can listen to the digital edition for free as long as I have an Amazon Prime membership but don't have the physical disc), but it's only sold by third-party sellers on Amazon, and they want a proverbial pound of flesh for it. One U.S.-based seller wants $742.99 plus $3.99 shipping & handling, while another seller, this one in Japan, is asking $746.99 and offers free shipping. Those prices are beyond my reach, so I'll pass.

The Blu-ray, thankfully, is available from the Great Voices Film Company, so I ordered it directly from its website (www.greatvoicessingjd.com) on sale for $17.99 (the regular price is $24.99) two days ago. There's also a DVD edition (regular price $17.99, sale price $12.99 at the time of publication), but I like the crispness of high definition Blu-rays so I went with that format. Per the tracking information provided by the site, my disc is still in Los Angeles and won't be here till next week.


While Great Voices Sing John Denver is billed as a making-of documentary, I'm hoping to see at least a few full performances of the songs in the hard-to-get CD. As I said earlier, I have a newfound passion for Denver's beautiful music and lyrics, but I'm not going to go deep into debt to buy an overpriced used copy of the Great Voices Sing John Denver disc. If worst comes to worst I'll try buying the digital copy, but I'm hoping that won't be necessary.

I could probably review An Evening with John Denver as early as tomorrow; Amazon adds an "Autorip" digital copy for free when you buy selected physical CDs, and luckily this 2001 reissue of the first "live" John Denver album is one of those. However, I will wait until I have the physical disc in hand to do the write-up; CDs often have detailed liner notes which might prove useful to me as a reviewer because I'm not an expert on Denver's career or music.

©,℗ 2004 Sony Legacy 


The other album, John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits, does not include a free digital copy, so if I want to review it, I will just have to hold my horses and wait until I can listen to it. It has, of course, many of the songs found in The Essential John Denver, but I still want to see what it has that's different. So...we'll have to wait until the weekend at the earliest before I can even think of doing a review.

Well, that's it for today. I do plan on watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker one more time this weekend so I can do a credible review for this blog. I also expect to follow that up with a writeup of the soundtrack album, which is John Williams' ninth and last contribution to the saga's musical legacy. And readers of A Certain Point of View can expect more book and movie reviews in this new year and beginning of the 2020s.

Until next time, Constant Reader, I'll catch you on the sunny side of things. Peace!

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