Willie Hoevers
Originally from Holland, Willie Hoevers came to the U.S. at the age of 7, where he grew up near San Diego, California. After graduating high school, he joined the U.S Air Force, serving his tour of duty during the Vietnam War. After returning stateside, Willie began his musical career as a drummer, performing with bands throughout the Denver area. He expanded his musical talents by buying a bass guitar from a buddy, and has since performed as a bass player as well. Thanks to his love for the music of John Denver, Willie decided to settle in the Rocky Mountain town of Dillon, Colorado in 1988. While there, he became acquainted with John Adams, and soon afterwards became the bass player for John Adams and Friends, leaving behind his drum kit to concentrate instead on his electric bass. Since then, Willie has toured extensively with John throughout the Rocky Mountain states. Willie admits that it's a dream come true, not only to live in the Colorado Rockies, but also to perform the music that truly captures their spirit -- the music of John Denver.
Mark Johnson
Mark is a true Colorado native, born in Denver and raised in the Mountain town of Evergreen before the family moved to Boulder. His parents owned property near Aspen in Snowmass and Marble, so Mark spent most of his childhood vacations in the Aspen area..skiing, hiking, and fishing. Mark has many fond childhood memories of listening to John Denver’s music while exploring the backcountry in the family jeep. Mark’s father owned a successful aerospace engineering company and moonlighted as an opera singer with the Brico Symphony in Denver. Mark’s mother was a piano teacher in Boulder and introduced him to the keyboard at the age of 7. As a child, Mark performed in the Boulder Civic Opera, acting in such musicals as “Oliver” and “The Music Man.” As a teenager Mark began writing and recording music, and played in several bands. At Fairview high school, he was a member the prestigious Excalibur jazz show choir and also performed in the Colorado All State Choir. After High School graduation Mark won a Chic Corea scholarship to study music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In addition to his studies in Boston, he was a composition major at The University of Colorado at Boulder. He also studied classical piano at Colorado State University. After college, Mark became a professional keyboard player and traveled the United States in several successful bands. Over the years he has been engaged in various business ventures, but has continued to study and perform the piano. His wife is a true mountain girl, having spent a lifetime in the Granby area involved in the family hay business and rearing horses and livestock. The couple has 3 small children who are living the rural Colorado lifestyle. When Mark is not busy touring with John Adams, he enjoys teaching piano and operating a small recording studio on the ranch in Granby. He loves exploring the outdoors, playing the music of John Denver and recording his own original piano music as well.
Randy Utterback
Tom PaxtonNo folks, this is not 'the' Tom Paxton, but it is 'a' Tom Paxton. 'A' Tom Paxton came to Aspen in 1977 to play music in the mountains. Since then, he has established himself in the valley as a versatile freelance acoustic and electric bass player, playing in a wide range of musical styles from classical to jazz; bluegrass to rock and everything in between. He often sings and tells stories at campfire gatherings. He plays in a number of bands in town and occasionally accompanies musicians such as Mose Allison and the Coasters. He has played in the pit orchestra for a number of local and regional Broadway musical productions and has also occasionally appeared on stage. He also sings, with his wife Julie, in the Dickens Carolers, who appeared in one of John Denver’s Christmas TV specials, as well as a segment on Good Morning America called A Christmas in Aspen with John Denver. John featured the Carolers in several of his Aspen Christmas concerts and was kind enough to sing with the Carolers and a local children choir on a Christmas album that Tom and Julie produced. Tom loves kids, and spends his weekday afternoons and lots of Saturdays as an academic tutor, guitar teacher, and kid’s ski instructor.
Dave HardingDave Harding’s interest in music stems from his father’s pursuits as a jazz saxophonist for Stan Kenton, Nat King Cole and others. At age ten David began experimenting with piano, flute and drums but found that he excelled on guitar. After a music scholarship to Eastern Washington University, David took his career to Nashville where he worked as a session player. Throughout his career he has shared the stage with Ricky Skaggs, The Oak Ridge Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Denver, John Oates (of Hall and Oates), Jimmy Ibbotson of The Nitty Gritty Dirtband and many others. Dave also had the honor of playing the National Anthem for the Colorado Rockies! For the last 7 years David has performed at the Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis Hotels in Aspen and has performed for many corporate events. He has made a network appearance on Good Morning America. David has produced and engineered numerous albums, including several of his own. In 1999 he co-wrote and produced an album with Seraina McCarty entitled “It’s Time Now”, for an Art Exhibition held at the United Nations and the music for the PBS special “One Thousand Years Of Peace”.
Sally PetersonSally was born and raised in New Jersey. At the age of 21 I moved to New York City to pursue her dream of musical theatre. She pounded the pavement and landed her first professional job with a summer stock company where they did 12 musicals in 12 weeks. She called it boot camp theatre. She made $110.00 a week and it was one of the best times of her life. She then worked with The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players performing at New York’s Symphony Space and various tours. She really felt burned out and flew out to Denver to visit her older sister Laurie. Two weeks has turned into 25 years. Sally sings with a great female vocal trio called "Les Femmes Fatales" and is much honored to be the musical director of “Unity of The Mountains”. To balance out her life (and pay the bills) Sally works as a skin care specialist at The Vail Mountain Lodge and Spa. She has always loved John Denver’s music (and still has her LP's) so singing with John Adams is always a joy. Life is good and Sally feels truly blessed to be doing what she loves.
Guido Bos (Guest Band Member)
Ad Welten (Guest Band Member)
Ben Jansen (Guest Band Member)At age seven, Ben asked if he could join a drum band in Nijmegen, Holland. He received a snare drum from the local organization to practice and pretty soon after that he added pots and pans en lids in order to create his own drum kit. He really got the hang of it when his instructor taught him how to play and Ben became very enthusiastic. Ben’s older brother, Johan, played the guitar and was looking with his band for a drummer. Ben was invited to join his brother’s band, which was practicing in a garage. From there they started to play at community events and local parties. At the age of eleven, Ben became the drummer of a youth choir and after mandatory choir rehearsals they started to play music of The Beatles, Rolling Stones and the like. He left the drum band and joined a music school in order to receive quality drum instruction. He learned different styles of music like Jazz and Latin-American, which were educated by highly qualified teachers. He really became inspired and when he was only 12 years old, Ben performed during the summer holidays at Tony Boltini’s circus, a very well-known and famous circus in Europe. About 3 years later, he joined several bands that played a diversity of music like Blues, Big band, Jazz and others. His whole life became playing in different bands and Ben hardly had any time for school. The earnings were good and he was invited to perform with the Major Dundee Band. Never the intension to become a professional drummer, Ben started to study music at the Conservatory in Rotterdam, where he graduated in 1988. In 1983 Ben auditioned for a very popular Dutch band “Kadanz” and after 2 weeks Ben had his first TV performance with that band. Other popular bands showed their interest in Ben and shortly after that he became a member of V.O.F. de Kunst, The Art Company, The Shorts, and toured though many European countries. In 1991 he joined “Tulsa”, one of Holland’s most popular country bands. Besides their own program they performed with Vince Gill, Steve Wariner, and Kathy Chiavola. Ben had the privilege to travel with his bands to countries like; The Philippines, Austria, France, England, Bulgaria, Romania, East Germany and many more. After performing with so many bands, Ben now works as freelance drummer and is a music teacher at the Regional Education Center in Almelo, Holland, and also coaches bands. Ben is happily married to Tatiana and together they have four children.
Bryan “Blues Harp” Murphy (Guest Band Member)Music has been a good part of my life for as long as I can member .It has brought me heartaches and many happy moments. A lot of friends have influenced me in the past years guys like John Sommers and Sandy Munro and Cash Cashman who I worked with in Aspen Colorado In the late 60's also in later years Nick Rath one of the best guitarist I have ever worked with. Nike I worked on a lot of studio projects together. Things like banjos, guitars, amplifiers, flat tiers, cold beer, microphones and jam sessions and ski resorts have all played some small part in my continuing love of music. My life took a different direction in the 80's when I met a guy from Chicago named Tony DeFigleo who became a good friend and mentor. I went back to school and got my United States Coast Guard Merchant Marine Captain’s License. From that time till now with the help of my mentor I have been the captain of some of the best known passenger boats in this country. Music has not been my career but it has remained my passion. I can now be found playing with a classic rock and blues band one night and with a high powered blue grass band called Gold Cost Connection on a different night .I have also been involved with a new friend Enrique (Rick) Arrenas with mkmonline.com one of the best website guys I know doing websites like this one .We are still playing and singing with the South Florida Bluegrass Association Doing our thing in Florida. After doing two records in the 80's “The great Uranian Traveling Magic Show” with cuts like She Takes Me Up To Zero and Will I Have The Time. I still like to go into the studio and cut new CD that we have for sale. That is a little about myself and how I got from a small town of White Bear Lake ,Minnesota to where we are today in South Florida with the worlds largest Tiki party boat in South Beach Miami ,Florida.
Jim Connor (Guest Band Member)For some people music making is as natural and inevitable as cool, fresh water bubbling up from a deep underground spring. That*s the way it is with Gadsden, Alabama native Jim Connor who now lives in Richmond, Virginia. Jim has been playing, singing and composing since high school. Nearly four years at Harvard acquainted him with popular folk groups. He changed his major from engineering to humanities transferred to Birmingham Southern where he graduated, and the rest, as they say, is music history. He’s a recording artist, former member of the Kingston Trio and the writer of John Denver’s country classic “Grandma*s Feather Bed”. His love of the folk tradition Jim traces back to the songs his Tennessee grandmother taught him and to ”Uncle” Arthur Kuykendall, from whom he learned ‘frailing’ on the banjo. Jim also plays harmonica and has written a Broadway-bound musical, composed a piano concerto and a symphony for banjo, guitar, and harmonica and is a yodeler. “His humor, experience and stories add depth to any concert he joins”, Adams’ remarks.
Steve Weisberg (Guest Band Member)In his book, John Denver refers to the band comprised of Steve Weisberg, John Sommers and Dick Kniss very fondly: "It was that constellation. Along with some terrific studio musicians, that carried me through some big years touring and recording". Steve played lead guitar, Dobro, pedal steel, and was a contributing songwriter on John Denver's Greatest Hits - Vol. 1 and 2, Back Home Again, An Evening With John Denver, Rocky Mountain Christmas, Windsong and Spirit. "When I first heard about the Dutch John Adams singing John Denver's music, I wondered if there was also a Spanish John Denver..? (Eeez a long way from L.A. to Denver..)? I'd been part of all the tribute concerts at The Wheeler and they were wonderful, slick, star-studded shows. But when I finally heard John Adams at The Wheeler it was like being at a John Denver concert in the 70's. It was if John Denver was singing" I used to fantasize about accompanying John Denver again. Accompanying John Adams is the closest I'll come to it in this lifetime! The concerts we did in Aspen were like those magical evenings, just like it was playing with John Denver in the seventies; Warm and Intimate!