Poems, Prayers & Promises
The breakthrough: Take Me Home, Country Roads, the first Sunshine on My Shoulders, and covers of the Beatles and James Taylor.
John Denver, 1971
- Released
- 1971
- Recorded
- 1970 to 1971
- Studio
- RCA Studios, New York City
- Label
- RCA Victor
- Producer
- Milton Okun and Susan Ruskin
- Length
- 37:57
His fourth studio album was made in New York with Milton Okun and Susan Ruskin producing and Ray Hall engineering. Denver wrote or co-wrote six of its twelve songs, including the title song, My Sweet Lady and Sunshine on My Shoulders, and it also holds Let It Be, Paul McCartney's Junk and James Taylor's Fire and Rain. Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert sing on it and wrote two of its songs, I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado and, with Denver, Take Me Home, Country Roads.
It reached 15 on the Billboard 200 and became his commercial breakthrough. The Woody Guthrie Center's exhibit says it made him a star. Legacy issued a 50th-anniversary vinyl edition.
Track listing
- Poems, Prayers and Promises4:04
- Let It Be3:38
- My Sweet Lady4:23
- Wooden Indian1:38
- Junk1:40
- Gospel Changes3:24
- Take Me Home, Country Roads3:08
- I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado2:07
- Sunshine on My Shoulders5:12
- Around and Around2:16
- Fire and Rain3:44
- The Box2:44
Personnel
- John Denver guitars, vocals
- Bill Danoff vocals, guitar
- Taffy Nivert vocals
- Gary Chester drums
- Dick Kniss double bass
- Frank Owens piano
- Mike Taylor acoustic guitar
- Eric Weissberg banjo, steel guitar
More from John Denver
Rhymes & Reasons (1969), John Denver's Greatest Hits (1973)
Sources
- Poems, Prayers & Promises, Wikipedia
- Rhymes & Reasons: The Music of John Denver, Woody Guthrie Center
- Poems, Prayers & Promises 50th anniversary vinyl, Music Direct