For Little Ones

“For Little Ones” was originally recorded in the latter part of 1967 by (then) twenty-one-year-old Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch.  The album was totally acoustic, featuring Donovan’s rich baritone voice and his unique acoustic guitar picking style. He also played harmonica on the record. In addition – Donovan brought in an upright bass player, bongo player, Derroll Adams on banjo and flutist Harold McNair (aka “Little G”).

And how did I come to record my own versions of these twelve songs – well – let’s start at the beginning: In the summer of 1970 I was perusing the record rack at the local music store in the small western New York town I lived in when I first came across the album. So, out of curiosity and a having been a Donovan fan (of a somewhat minor order) I purchased the record. And, as I recall, I took the recordhome, fell in love with it to the point that I not only played it over-and-over but endeavored to learn how to play several of the album’s tunes on the guitar (which I had only been playing for about two-and-a-half years at that point in my life – so my attempted renditions were more-than-likely fairly wretched at that time I might add).

Through the many years since then – I have obtained several couples on vinyl, CD and Wave/MP3 file formats. Alas, it would seem that I just had to have those songs, that album of magical tunes in my collection – I just had to hear them once in a while to keep my sanity by losing myself in the wondrous sublimity that these simple songs seemed to evoke within me.

So – in March of this year (2013) I, for whatever reason, decided to record my own version of “Tinker & the Crab” from the album. This then led to me recording “Voyage Into the Golden Screen” and then another and another until I knew that I, again for whatever unknown reason, must record every song on the album.

So this is it - herein lies, I believe, the first ever remake of this Donovan album or any Donovan album ever. Call me crazy or call me ambitious or an unabashed time-waster – it matters not – if you like Donovan’s music you might just like this remake of one of his greatest works – “For Little Ones.”