MAXIM LANGSTAFF

In The Raven’s Shadow Novel Prologue

Equinox I never knew my grandfather until he was dead. Today I do. He didn’t take his secrets with him. He left them for me. My name is Mallory Pingree. The story I tell is a strange one. I find myself doubting what I know now to be true. I suppose as long as it […]

Wildlife Conservation Magazine

Wildlife Conservation Magazine – September/October John Denver’s voice–and face–were everywhere in the ’70s, when the back-to-nature movement became mainstream. Today, the pop music superstar works harder than ever, spreading the conservation ethic. At 49, John Denver is no longer America’s “Country Boy.” Along with the environmental movement that he gave his voice to, John Denver […]

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Simple Gifts – Excerpt

Chapter One Excerpts: SIMPLE GIFTS America was an untrammeled place, a land of virgin forests and high-mountain peaks whose mirror lakes reflected back the heavens. It was place where wild rivers tumbled to the sea-. It was a place of flowing prairies and hidden valleys, a place of miraculous abundance.  This was a new world- […]

The Wildlife Concert – Liner Notes

John Denver The WILDLife Concert

The week of February 20 at Sony Music Studios was unlike any other.  Although film and music history had often been made at the legendary studio complex (the former Fox Movietone Studios), this was the first time a double “live” CD, two-hour television special and home video had ever been undertaken in a single session.  […]

Editorial Philadelphia Inquirer (Syndicated Nationwide)

​John Denver was a personal friend. As one of his creative collaborators, and the Co-Creator and Executive Producer of his last completed, original work in both television and music, The Wildlife Concert,(1995) and The Best of John Denver Live,(1997) I often heard that John Denver’s music was no longer “hip”. John Denver’s songs never were “hip”. They […]

Written from Max’s Interview with Joni Mitchell

ON LEARNING TO PLAY MUSIC When I was a child we didn’t have a lot of records, but my father was a trumpet teacher, and he played in small local swing bands. My mother loved nocturnes, so she had “Clair de Lune” and “Moonlight Sonata* and every romantic piano piece. Then there was the radio, […]

Written from Max’s Interview with Smokey Robinson

ON EARLY INFLUENCES I grew up in a home where everything was being played. I had two older sisters, and they and my mom played every kind of music you can think of: gut bucket blues, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker. They played classical music and jazz, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Sammy Davis, […]

Dancing in the Chaos – Liner Notes

“The only responsible advice you can give a 23 year old who wants to be a recording artist is go do anything else. You have a better chance of being struck by lightening on a cloudless day than making a living as a pop artist. My first introduction to Benza was a phone call from […]

The Best of John Denver, Live! – Liner notes

This new, striking and intimate collection, The Best of John Denver Live captures many of the legendary artist’s greatest hits. Like rediscovered old friends, these songs are at once familiar, yet here, have a fresh new excitement. Echoes of Jazz saxophone and driving percussion color a richer palette. The sound is more interesting, John’s voice […]

Select Poems from In The Raven’s Shadow

Revelation  I hear the raven Foreshadow gloom, A jig’s fool In magic cavorting From earth to spirit, Whose cry marks louder Each fragile second Like the sparkle of Stars in the morning sky, In the blink of an eye Departed As you rest your head This shortest day, Through window’s frost I see, our sage […]