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Donovan
The Donovan Concert: Live in L.A.
(MVD)
First Appeared in The Music Box, January 2008, Volume 15, #1
Written by John Metzger
Wed January 16, 2008, 07:00 AM CST
When he took the stage at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre in January 2007, Donovan
looked considerably older than his familiar public image. It’s understandable,
of course. Nearly 40 years have passed since he last stood at the pinnacle of
pop music. For a time, though — specifically between his appearance at the 1965
Newport Folk Festival, the same event at which Bob Dylan went electric, and the
issuance of his 1969 endeavor Barabajagal — it seemed as if he could do
no wrong. Not only did he achieve wide-sweeping commercial success by scoring a
number of Top 20 albums and singles, but he also traveled to India with The
Beatles, Mia Farrow, and The Beach Boys’ Mike Love and recorded with Cream’s
Jack Bruce, the Jeff Beck Group, and future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones
and Jimmy Page. As the Vietnam War raged and the presiding mood of Western
society became darker, angrier, and more pragmatic, however, Donovan struggled
to retain an audience for his utopian ideas. After his independently released
effort Lady of the Stars fell upon deaf ears in 1984, he momentarily
slipped into retirement.
On several occasions during the past decade, Donovan has attempted to mount a
comeback of sorts, and, truth be told, the world needs to hear his voice now
more than ever. Yet, despite having crafted two sterling efforts — the hypnotic
Sutras and the heady Beat Café
— he remains underappreciated and ignored by all but his biggest fans. In this
regard, his latest effort The Donovan Concert: Live in L.A., which
features his performance at the Kodak Theatre, is meant both to increase his
profile in anticipation of a new album and to raise awareness of the work of the
David Lynch Foundation, an organization that strives to teach Transcendental
Meditation techniques as a means of achieving world peace.
With a gleam in his eye and bearing the impish look of an all-knowing
mystical prophet, Donovan launched into a reggae-tinged rendition of There Is
a Mountain. As the show progressed, the years that had passed since his
heyday slowly began to fade away. With the exception of his daughter Astrella
Celeste’s Dream and his own The Illusion, which he described as a
work-in-progress, Donovan wound his way through a set list that surprisingly was
composed entirely of material that he wrote in the 1960s. Although he avoided
performing songs from Beat Café, he
nonetheless echoed its overriding theme by weaving his music together with tales
that highlighted how he came to adopt his Bohemian lifestyle.
Backed by upright bass player Tom Mansi and percussionist Stewart Lawrence,
Donovan fully immersed himself in his folk-oriented roots. Carried by the gentle
flow of his acoustic guitar and harmonica accompaniments, Catch the Wind
was suitably tranquil and lovely, while Colours blossomed in a
bluegrass-tinged arrangement that simultaneously begged to be adorned with
fiddle and mandolin. Some of his psychedelic excursions, such as Sunshine
Superman, didn’t translate completely into the stripped-down settings that
he evoked, but more often than not, he and his supporting cast overcame the
obstacles with their enthusiasm. Season of the Witch, for example, was
fitted with a rolling, Afro-Cuban beat, while Hurdy Gurdy Man regained
the lost verse that had been penned by George Harrison. Over the course of the
evening, Donovan provided the assembled crowd with an engaging, retrospective
stroll through all of his best-known tunes, and The Donovan Concert: Live in
L.A. dutifully recreates the magic in all its paisley-hued glory.  ½
The Donovan Concert: Live in L.A. is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box
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