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Last Sunday night, my friend Amanda and I donned our caftans and went to see Donovan Leitch, one of the most prolific and influential musicians of the 1960’s, perform at the Capital Center for the Arts in Concord, and it was amazing.

Donovan’s voice and his talent have hardly been touched by the years, which is rare for someone who first began recording over forty years ago. His voice is still sweet, (only slightly reedier) and his guitar and harmonica playing are still fantastic (he played a great harmonica solo during ‘Josie’ in the second half of the show, and a beautiful guitar solo during “Isle of Islay”). One of the great surprises of the show was that he played many songs from his earlier albums, like “The Little Tin Soldier”, a beautiful version of “The Ballad of Geraldine” and “Donna, Donna” (or the Doughnut song, if you ask Johannah Lester). Besides these, he also covered all of his hits (like “Catch the Wind”, “Colours” and “Sunshine Superman”), and many other fun songs like “Riki Tiki Tavi”, and “There is a Mountain”. He even played “The Hurdy Gurdy Man”, complete with the verse written by George Harrison, which didn’t make it on to the album cut. He also did several songs about his early beat days, such as a great version of “Sunny Goodge Street” and “To Try for the Sun”, a wonderful song about him and his best friend Gypsy Dave, and their ramblings around England. The set list was amazing, and one couldn’t ask for a better show. The only song that I wished he had sung was “Epistle to Derroll”, but it was hard to complain with such a great performance.

For most of the show Donovan was solo on his latest acoustic guitar, Kelly, but was also accompanied by an upright bassist and percussionist. The threesome worked well together and was reminiscent of the early beat cafes, where the sixties revolution began. Donovan often asked the audience to sing with him and it created a wonderful atmosphere of fun and closeness. During “Happiness Runs” I felt more like I was singing at camp then in an auditorium watching a show. He closed with “Atlantis” (which had the audience on its feet and chanting at the end), but wasn’t getting off that easily, and soon returned for an encore of “Mellow Yellow”.

Donovan is still a great musician and a positive influence on the world today. He studied with the Maharishi in India with the Beatles, and has done his best to spread the teachings of peace throughout the world with his music. After such a night of stories and music, when he left the stage, it was like saying goodbye to a friend, and we were sad to seem him go.