With John Denver, Denver seemed to be making attempts to change his pastoral country boy image. The cover photo shows him in an intense, energy-charged performance shot, while the instrumentation is more lush and relies less on acoustic guitar than previous efforts. His own "Downhill Stuff," and a cover of "Johnny B. Goode" are rock numbers, while Bryan Bowers' "Berkeley Woman" is an uncharacteristically lustful song for Denver to record. Elsewhere, the haunting flute of Jim Horn on "Joseph and Joe," and Herb Pedersen's warm "Southwind" make the album a worthwhile buy.