John Denver (plus Denver, Boise & Johnson) - Philadelphia Folk Festival, Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, PA, 8-25-1968

I like to find music of famous musicians from the time before they were famous, provided it's worthy of their later career and the sound quality is excellent. There aren't a lot of cases like that, but I've posted three 1969 concerts of John Denver here, before he started to hit it big around 1971. He's a good candidate for that kind of thing, because he was singing in public and writing excellent songs well before becoming famous. For instance, his later classic "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was actually written in 1966.

The three 1969 concerts I've posted are all excellent sounding soundboard bootlegs. It turns out there's another excellent sounding soundboard bootleg of him from even earlier, 1968! Here it is.

It's actually three different recordings combined. (I'm keeping it just the same as the original bootleg.) The first nine tracks feature just Denver on solo acoustic guitar, at the Philadelphia Folk Festival on August 23, 1968. Then, two days later, he came back as part of the Denver, Boise and Johnson folk trio, at the same festival. That's here as tracks 10 to 22. Then the last four tracks also feature Denver, Boise and Johnson, but at a concert in Columbus, Ohio, in June 1968.

I need to explain the history of Denver, Boise and Johnson. The group was originally a popular folk group called the "Chad Mitchell Trio." But in 1965, Chad Mitchell left for a solo career, and was replaced by John Denver. It was his first big break into the music industry. The group changed its name to just the "Mitchell Trio." Then, by 1968, the last original member had left, so they were legally required to change their name again, to "Denver, Boise and Johnson." This version didn't last long, breaking up in 1969 without releasing any albums. But that's the version that appears on this bootleg.

For the Denver, Boise and Johnson songs, Denver sang most of them, but David Boise or Micheal did the lead vocals on some of them too.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival portion of the concert is 42 minutes long. With the Columbus, Ohio songs added at the end, it's a total of 55 minutes.

01 Good Ole Friends of Mine (John Denver)
02 talk (John Denver)
03 Deal with the Ladies (John Denver)
04 Catch Another Butterfly (John Denver)
05 talk (John Denver)
06 Sticky Summer Weather (John Denver)
07 Farewell Party (John Denver)
08 talk (John Denver)
09 What's That I Hear Now (John Denver)
10 If You Had Me in Shackles (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
11 Yellow Cat (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
12 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
13 Talking Vietnam Potluck Blues (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
14 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
15 Business Goes On as Usual (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
16 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
17 Everybody's Talkin' (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
18 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
19 '68 Nixon [This Year's Model] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
20 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
21 Leaving on a Jet Plane (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
22 Love of the Common People (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
23 The John Birch Society (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
24 Victoria Dines Alone (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
25 Your Friendly, Liberal, Neighborhood Ku-Klux-Klan (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
26 Let's Get Together (Denver, Boise & Johnson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15260440/JohnDnv_1968_PhiladlphiaFolkFestivlOldPoolFrmSchwnksvillePA__8-25-1968_atse.zip.html

The cover is a screenshot of Denver taken from a video of  Denver, Boise & Johnson from around this time period.