Donovan

Although it was a disappointing seller and signaled the start of Donovan's commercial decline, Open Road could have been a new beginning for the singer. Stripping down to a Celtic rock format that managed to be hard and direct, yet still folkish, Donovan turned out a series of excellent songs, notably the minor hit "Riki Tiki Tavi," that seemed to show him moving toward a roots-oriented sound of considerable appeal. Unfortunately, he was derailed by record company hassles and perhaps his own burnout, and Open Road turned out to be a sidestep rather than a step forward. ~ William Ruhlmann

These are two of Donovan's best albums of the 70s. I consider them both better than either Cosmic Wheels or Essence to Essence. Maybe not as great as Open Road, but the styles are so different its hard to compare. 7-Tease is full of high energy songs as well as a couple of slower ballads…

Like Johnny Cash before him, Donovan was selected by producer Rick Rubin as a childhood hero he would like to restore to glory. With Rubin's encouragement and production, Donovan does make an impressive comeback with Sutras, which is reminiscent of his earliest records. Sutras abandons the colorful psychedelic pop of his best-known songs for the spare acoustic folk of his first records, and while Donovan's songwriting is a little uneven, the warmth of the performances is charming and welcoming, especially for long-time fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Donovan's album debut, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, presented his breakout British single "Catch the Wind" and added an assortment of pleasant folkie jams. Though he was often derided at the time as a pale imitation of Bob Dylan, there isn't a lot of evidence here; true, he does cover a Woody Guthrie song ("Car Car Riding in My Car") and gives it some twang worthy of the master, but his style is his own, slanted toward the mysticism of British folk less than the earthiness of its American cousin. Donovan summons the proper age-old weariness for "Goldwatch Blues," gets a bit bluesy for "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond," and lets it all hang out for "Keep on Truckin'."
Review by John Bush @ Allmusic

Rock music's first two-LP box set, A Gift from a Flower to a Garden overcomes its original shortcomings and stands out as a prime artifact of the flower-power era that produced it. The music still seems a bit fey, and overall more spacy than the average Moody Blues album of this era, but the sheer range of subjects and influences make this a surprisingly rewarding work. Essentially two albums recorded simultaneously in the summer of 1967, the electric tracks include Jack Bruce among the session players. The acoustic tracks represent an attempt by Donovan to get back to his old sound and depart from the heavily electric singles ("Sunshine Superman," etc.) and albums he'd been doing — it is folkier and bluesier (in an English folk sense) than much of his recent work. ~ Bruce Eder

Pied Piper is the twentieth studio album (25th overall), by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It marks the third album of his children's music, after the For Little Ones portion of A Gift from a Flower to a Garden and H.M.S. Donovan…

Like Johnny Cash before him, Donovan was selected by producer Rick Rubin as a childhood hero he would like to restore to glory. With Rubin's encouragement and production, Donovan does make an impressive comeback with Sutras, which is reminiscent of his earliest records…