Ever think about sunshine on your shoulders making you happy, country roads taking you home, or how you might end up leaving on a jet plane?
If you know these references, the show coming to Prince George might be just what you’ve been waiting for.
Rocky Mountain High, celebrating the music of John Denver, goes Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Knox Performance Centre.
The show is created by Rick Worrall, a Canadian recording artist and producer from Kelowna, and John’s long-time friend and arranger/conductor Lee Holdridge.
This production honours the incredible legacy of songs John Denver left behind.
“This show reminds people of some of the incredible songs John Denver had,” Worrall said.
It all started for Worrall when he ended up replacing a sick singer doing an Elton John tribute with the Okanagan Symphony.
The show was a success and it was such fun it got Worrall thinking about whose music he really wanted to bring back to the stage with an orchestral bent.
“Immediately after I was done performing the Elton John show, it got me thinking that I loved performing with a symphony,” Worrall recalled.
“And having seen John perform live a number of times in the 70s with full symphony I knew his songs would work right away. I loved him – I cut my teeth on John Denver growing up so I thought I would see if the symphony charts even existed.”
Worrall found out that Lee Holdridge had been the arranger conductor for those songs. Throwing caution to the wind, Worrall reached out to Holdridge via email never expecting a response from the multi music award winning artist.
Surprisingly an hour later he got a message to call Holdridge that saw Worrall eventually putting together arrangements for about 80 songs using Holdridge’s original hand-written conductor scores.
Worrall realized that to bring Rocky Mountain High to the smaller centres was an important piece of bringing the show to John Denver fans.
“So in Prince George people will see the scaled show where there is a core band of nine of us plus an ensemble of players that have come from symphonies across BC and Albert,” Worrall explained.
“We started touring the show last year to smaller venues from 600 seats down and what I like about that is that it’s wonderful to play these big halls with 2,500 people and it’s amazing to do it with the full symphony but there isn’t that intimacy as it can get lost in that big a venue and so many of John’s songs lend to that intimacy. So when we do these smaller centres it’s kinda very rootsy in a way because you’re so close to the audience and as an entertainer making that connection with the audience is so important. I believe it gives the audience permission to come along with me. That I’m a fan, I’m just like you guys. I’m up here singing and the facilitator of this but I’m as big a fan as you are of John Denver’s songs.”
People always say they really appreciate the show, he added.
On the stage will be 14 musicians, many who are award winners in their own right.
Worrall doesn't want people to get the wrong idea about what the show looks like, he added.
“I look nothing like John Denver and so I didn’t want it to be where I dress up or put on a wig or put glasses on – I wear glasses but not the granny glasses,” Worrall laughed.
“It’s not a tribute – it’s a celebration – and a labour of love for me because I love John Denver’s music.”
Rocky Mountain High goes Saturday, Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Knox Performance Centre, 1448 Fifth Ave., in downtown Prince George.
Tickets are $50 each at www.knoxcentre.ca/rocky-mountain-high.
