A photo my daughter posted today of her, her chorus and John Denver brings back memories of the concluding performance that the Children's Chorale did in 1988 in the large Aspen concert tent with John Denver at a convention of Windstar, an environmental group founded by Denver and Tom Crum. This was the second year that the chorale had been part of the convention. I had been heavily involved in the background doing sound reinforcement and production stuff for the chorale during the three-day conference. The production director of the Windstar event was Randy Kunkel who had a daughter in the chorale. Just before the closing act where the kids were to sing their beautifully choreographed and upbeat "Ease on Down the Road," Denver decided that it was going to make the ending too long and told Randy that he was axing their act. "Randy and John argued, but with a final plea to "trust me, John," Randy got the act back in the program.
There was tension as co-founder Tom Crum joined us in the sound booth for the finale. Then as the kids began to sing, a most memorable and magic moment happened: an energized audience joined in singing with the kids and began dancing in the aisles, Tom Crum shouted and danced precariously on a tall narrow stool in the sound booth. The kids had a rousing finish and ran off into the cheering crowd. Peter Kader's jazz quintet then joined in with chorale director Bob Crowder on keyboard as they improvised on the "Ease on Down the Road" theme for a quarter of an hour. Everyone hugged, laughed and danced. Conversation was limited to shouting, and the Aspen tent was shaking. Unforgettable.
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