John Denver should be well known by anyone who has listened to the radio over the last 30 years.  His music is still played on Oldies and Adult Contemporary stations.

Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. was born on New Year’s Eve in 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico.  His father was a Captain in the United States Air Force which caused John to move around a lot.  He struggled with making friends and became introverted.  He got his first acoustic guitar when he was 11 years old.  One time, while a junior in high school, John stole his father’s car and drove to Los Angeles with the intention of starting a career in music.  His father quickly returned him to Fort Worth.

While in college, John Denver was able to finally start his career.  He left school and moved to Los Angeles and played in local coffee houses.  In 1965, he joined the Chad Mitchell Trio after Chad Mitchell had left.

After a few years in the Chad Mitchell Trio, John Denver left to pursue a solo career.  He signed with RCA and released his first album.  RCA did not promote him or his album very much, so John Denver chose to promote it himself by going around the country playing for free or for little money.

In 1972, his career was starting to take off.  By 1974, he was a huge star in the acoustic guitar style having numerous hits on Billboard’s Pop and Country charts.  His fame also got him on many variety shows of the era, and he even had his own TV specials.  He is probably best known for his work with the Muppets.

John Denver was politically active in many causes.  He founded the Windstar Foundation in 1976 to promote sustainable living.

He was an avid skier, golfer and most of all, he enjoyed flying.  He owned many airplanes and had lastly purchased an ultra-lite airplane. He was practicing some flight patterns over Monterey Bay when he had trouble with the fuel tank switch and ended up crashing in the ocean.  John Denver died from his injuries in 1997 at age 53.

John Denver released three Christmas albums while he was alive, and this is the last one.  There is a CD release from 2001, 4 years after he died, called Christmas In Concert.  The track listing looks good and I’m going to have to put that on my wish list.  Also, from 1984 is a Christmas album titled Merry Christmas Aspen! featuring The Aspen Community Chorus And Orchestra, and The Snowmass Dickens Carolers.  John Denver is one of the musicians, so this is not really a John Denver Christmas record.  It looks interesting….must go on the wish list.

This CD comes to us from Delta Entertainment Corporation, a division of LaserLight Digital.  It was originally released in 1989 on Windstar Records; a label John Denver created in 1976.  It was originally recorded and mixed digitally.

The cover presents John Denver looking off in the distance superimposed over a mountainous area blanketed in snow.  His name and the CD title appear at the top in white lettering.  The back of the CD has a numerical track listing and writer credits superimposed over the same wooded mountaintop as on the cover.

The cover comes out and opens along a single fold-out.  On the left-hand side are credits for the producers and a list of the musicians who play on this.  Below are more artist credits and recording and production notes.  The right side is an exact duplication of the front cover but presented in black and white.  The back cover is plain blue with no image and the only writing is a note about LaserLight Digital in very small print at the bottom.

Overall, the CD artwork is good.  Musician and choir credits are always a plus for those that participated in the recording, but it would have been nice to have a small biography of John Denver, or other information such as recording dates or lyrics.  So, the only track listing or song writer credits that appear anywhere on the CD are on the back of the CD.

The first song is a John Denver original composition and the title of this CD, Christmas Like A Lullaby.  It tells the story of the longing to be in Colorado on Christmas Day from someone stuck in Australia.  John Denver first moved to Aspen in 1971 with his first wife and stayed in Aspen for the rest of his life.  He sings this in the first person, but I can’t find any information on whether he was in Australia on Christmas when he wrote this.  (As a side note, most people don’t immediately realize that on Christmas Day in Australia, the temperature could be in the 90’s).  It is different from any of the other songs presented here because it is the only song that features a string orchestra, provided by the Nashville String Machine.  It is a soulful, acoustic guitar driven lullaby extolling the longing of wanting to be home for Christmas.

The CD contains traditional carols as well as modern secular Christmas songs.  Along with John Denver’s acoustic guitar, a flute is heard throughout the CD and showcases very well on The First Noel and Away In A Manger.

There are two other original Christmas songs on here, both written by Tom Paxton.  Tom Paxton is a very successful folk singer that played the coffee houses  the same time as John Denver.  The first of these two that we hear is titled The Children Of Bethlehem.  It is a delicate, solemn song that describes the children of Bethlehem being woken up by singing voices and a bright light in the night sky on the night of Jesus’ birth.  They follow the voices and the light to the manger while all the adults are asleep.  It is quite obvious this was largely inspired by The Little Drummer Boy, but as viewed by children.  The song is pleasantly accented with Latin percussion conga.

John Denver handles the vocals all by himself except on two songs.  The first of these is Jingle Bells and features The Kid Connection, directed by Janet McMahan.  It has a traditional arrangement that is brightly accentuated by the children’s choir.  Throughout, the song is punctuated by a baritone sax.  It is so different that it really stands out.  I can’t think of any other Christmas songs outside of the Rock & Roll genre that feature such an instrument.  It is not bad.  It accents the song very nicely.

White Christmas is followed by the other original Tom Paxton song, Marvelous Toy, a song he wrote in 1960 about an unusual toy that does everything but is impossible to name.  It’s not really a Christmas song, but I think it fits in well with Christmas music.

It’s not fair to describe this album as Country, but some songs on here definitely have a Country feel, and Blue Christmas is one.

The Kid Connection is back to help John sing Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.  John sings the original lyrics in a serious manner while the Kids counter with wonderful harmonies, but they sing the version that all children learn in school, i.e., “like a lightbulb”, “like a glowworm”, and called him names “like Pinocchio”, etc.  It’s a fun song and The Kid Connection really brings it together.  It’s one of the stand-out songs on here.

The CD finishes nicely with a couple of carols and a couple of modern Christmas songs.

This is a good Christmas CD.  Well produced and if you know anything about John Denver, you know he stands by his convictions and that always comes through in his music.  Here he sings familiar carols and not so familiar originals, and you get the impression he really cares about the songs he’s chosen.  Even with common songs such as The Christmas Song, he does as good a job as anyone ever has.  Another stand-out song on here.

John Denver was a very giving person, and it shows in this, Christmas Like A Lullaby, his final Christmas album.  I wasn’t sure of what to expect when I put it on to listen to for the purpose of this review.  And I certainly did not expect to like it as much as I do.  And I’m glad that I do.  I don’t like it when I hear Christmas songs by artists that I like outside of Christmas music and then I hear their Christmas offerings and I’m disappointed.  That is not the case here.  I can highly recommend this Christmas collection to folks that like modern Christmas music with updated arrangements.  This CD should please most people.

I give this CD :

****