I have to mention the Donovan concert attended Saturday, June 10th. It was MUCH more than I expected and was shared my an exceptionally intimate crowd. Apparently there are not as many flower power type boomers out there in the QC. The Adler was not really half full, if everyone moved forward. We were 4th row and had empty seats directly in front of us. Anyway, what I wanted to say, besides YOU MISSED A GREAT AND INTERESTING SHOW...was to talk a bit about the concert itself.
First, there was an opening act and while it sounds a little like nepotism, the opening act was Joolz Jones, whose father was Jules Jones...who was the sone of Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones...and the “nepotism” part is, he is also the step-grandson of Donovan. IF one left the story there...it would be a disservice to both Joolz and Donovan. Joolz has chops and showed them. He came out very genuine and did what sounded like a guitar warmup that smoothly became the intro for Paint It Black. His take on that and other “known” songs by different artist was a breath of fresh air and made one set up and take note of his interpretations. He even covered Hendrix. BUT, he did a couple of originals as well and they had all the dynamic of a well trained, born with a guitar in your hands and a song in your mind type of person...as if born with experience.
Donovan came out and he explained that this was sort of an “after-leg” of his recent tour. He had been playing larger places and decided to pay back some of his fans from places with smaller venues and so he was winding up this tour with places like the Adler and other intimate venues. Truth be known, these probably were/will be the best shows of the tour for the sake of intimacy.
I won’t go on and on and on about the details, but he punctuated an eclectic grouping of songs with stories just as eclectic about the period of music history in which the songs were created. I will say, for a 70-something performer, his guitar work was impeccable. His fingering styles were right on and except for what I took to be a string buzz (or and amp buzz) on the base end of the guitar...every note was spot on. Sitting close enough to see the details of the fingers finding their strings and the music ringing forth....was nothing short of sitting at the feet of a master. The songs were some of the hits you would expect, but for me, I was there to see and experience Season Of The Witch. My all time favorite song as done by many (Bloomfield-Kooper-Stills Super Session being one of the best) and to get to hear it from the original was a treat I was waiting for. I was not disappointed. He talked an intro to it while Joolz came out and plugged in to lend a guitar-slinger aspect of the song. The two ripped through a memorable rendition, a memory to be kept with some of the finest moments in concerts I have seen.
Joolz left the stage and a few more hits rolled our way and then evening was over. Again, because of the small dedicated crowd, it didn’t feel like a huge hunk of an evening was over and now a struggle to get out of the venue....rather it was like talking to your friends and it was time to go home...say good night and head out...secure in the knowledge that whether in person or just on record, the things talked about would be there between friend forever.
