Songfacts®:

• "River Of Love" is a John Denver deep cut that brought him together with John Martin Sommers, who joined his band and went on to write his #1 hit "Thank God I'm A Country Boy."
  
  Sommers was in a country band called Liberty in Aspen, Colorado, where Denver lived. One night in 1973, Denver saw Liberty perform at the Blue Moose, one of the many music venues in town, and heard them play "River Of Love," a song Sommers wrote. Denver asked if he could record the song, and he wanted Liberty to play on it. Denver flew the band to New York City, where they recorded the song. They flew back to Aspen the next day and played another gig at the Moose that night. The Liberty members on the track are:
  
  John Sommers: acoustic guitar
  Lawrence Gottlieb: steel guitar
  Jan Camp Garret: mandolin
  Victor Garrett: bass
  
  Denver invited Liberty to be his opening act on some shows, and Sommers joined his band as a fiddle player and guitarist. On Denver's next album, Back Home Again, he recorded "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," which Sommers wrote. That song went to #1 in 1975 when it was released as a live version from Denver's concert special An Evening with John Denver.
• The song is a classic country heartbreaker, telling the story of a guy whose girl not only leaves him, but up and marries someone else. Their metaphorical river of love has turned muddy, and the flowers on the shore all died.
  
  It's a very different song than the jubilant "Thank God I'm A Country Boy."
• The song is part of John Denver's 1973 album Farewell Andromeda. At the time, Denver was known for his 1971 hits "Take Me Home Country Roads" and "Sunshine On My Shoulders," and for "Rocky Mountain High" from 1972. His next run of hits came in 1974 with "Annie's Song" and "Back Home Again."