Donovan

Born in Glasgow in 1946 and trained in both Scotland and England, Donovan made his mark on the British folk scene as early as 1965 with an acoustic approach rooted in folk and blues traditions. He soon broadened his palette toward a psychedelic pop sound with touches of jazz, Eastern music and folk rock. After the albums What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid and Fairytale, both released in 1965, he entered a decisive phase with producer Mickie Most that produced Sunshine Superman (1966), Mellow Yellow (1967), A Gift from a Flower to a Garden (1967), The Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968) and Barabajagal (1969) — records that introduced a more electric, colourful and sometimes meditative language. Donovan moved in the pop and psychedelic circles of London and the United States, worked with arranger John Cameron and surrounded himself with musicians linked to the Jeff Beck Group and the future Led Zeppelin. Close to the Beatles at the end of the 1960s, he also taught John Lennon and Paul McCartney a fingerpicking guitar style heard on several tracks from that period. In the 1970s he continued with Open Road (1970), HMS Donovan (1971) and Cosmic Wheels (1973), while also composing for film. Later he became more intermittent but still recorded Sutras (1996) with Rick Rubin, Beat Cafe (2004), Lunarian (2021) and Gaelia (2022). Long resident in Ireland, Donovan continues in his concerts and recordings to link the folk vein of his beginnings with a dreamier, more psychedelic pop songwriting.