"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 record home, 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."
Listen to these songs in their entirety at: https://sites.google.com/site/cragjensen/home/music/for-little-ones
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