SINGSONG PR NEWS: Appleseed Recordings

Donovan - Beat Café

Donovan is back with a brand new album of songs in the cool 'Beat Café supported by US and Europe dates

Release date:	August 24th 2004
Label:	Appleseed Recordings
Catalogue Number:	APR CD 1081
Distributor (UK):	RSK Entertainment

Seconds into the first verse of the opener to Beat Café and there's the shimmering voice, the seductive lyrics, framed in a haze of music - the familiar and welcome sound to generations of music lovers of one of the world's most individual singer-songwriters.

From folksinger to flower-child to philosopher … Donovan has ploughed an individual furrow through our musical landscape with distinctive and magical songs, from hit singles like "Mellow Yellow," "Sunshine Superman," "Catch the Wind" and "Atlantis," through jam-band covers by the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers ("There is a Mountain"), to TV and film soundtracks, and a precious, infrequent trickle of new releases broken in 2004 with a fine new album on Appleseed.

"Beat Café" features eleven new Donovan compositions (plus a version of the traditional "Cuckoo") recorded by multiple Grammy-winning producer John Chelew (Blind Boys of Alabama, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt) "in the spirit of the Bohemian café happenings" that date back to the mid-19th Century, as Donovan writes in his liner notes.

Donovan's goal on "Beat Café" was to "view 'modern life' as seen from 'Bohemia'," to capture the musical and intellectual freedom of a hip, underground hangout. "The new generations must create their own 'beat café'," he writes. "It can be described as a state of mind, an oasis of culture and an actual café.

Able support is provided by a world-class rhythm section in long-time Donovan cohort and renowned folk/jazz double bassist Danny Thompson (Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, The Pentangle, John Martyn) and drummer/percussionist Jim Keltner, a favoured sideman of Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder and George Harrison, while producer Chelew brings keyboards to the warm instrumental mix.

Love, both spiritual and physical, is a primary concern here on tracks like the opening, hypnotic "Love Floats," "Yin My Yang," "Two Lovers" and "Whirlwind."

Donovan's characteristic wordplay turns "The Question" into a conundrum, "Lord of the Universe" into a tongue-in-cheek boast, and "Poorman's Sunshine" into a declaration of independence.

An appropriately defiant arrangement of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle" adds a reminder of the preciousness of life, and the album closes with "Shambhala," a hushed yearning for a return to a peaceful, perhaps metaphorical, home.

The release of "Beat Café" is preceded by several "underground" club performances in San Francisco and New York followed by a world tour in 2005.

Some Donovan Did-You-Knows …

• appearing on the UK's seminal "Ready Steady Go" TV pop show for three consecutive weeks in 1964, the 18-year-old Donovan found "Catch the Wind," his first single make Number 3 in the British music charts

• his flower-power hit "Mellow Yellow" inspired the urban myth that smoking banana skins gets the user high

• Donovan session-men include Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones (both of Led Zeppelin), Allan Holdsworth, and the Jeff Beck Group (on the hit "Barabajagal")

• Donovan was guest vocalist on the title song of Alice Cooper's Number One-selling 1973 album, "Billion Dollar Babies."

• his contributions to music and poetry were recognised with the Award of an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Hertfordshire in 2003

• in summer 2004, early recordings by Donovan will be released in the UK as "Sixty Four," marking Donovan's fortieth anniversary as a performer.

www.donovan.ie

Donovan biography

Press reviews

Issued July 2004 by Singsong Entertainment Publicity

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