Open Road (Donovan album)
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| Studio album by Donovan | ||||
| Released | 1970 | |||
| Recorded | January–February 1970 | |||
| Studio | Morgan Studios, London, UK | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, Psychedelic rock, Celtic rock | |||
| Length | 42:19 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Donovan Leitch | |||
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Open Road is the eighth studio album, and ninth overall, from British singer-songwriter Donovan and the debut album from the short-lived band Open Road. While his previous work was composed by his playing solo on acoustic guitar and then recorded with a shifting cast of session musicians, Open Road was Donovan's effort toward writing and recording music as a member of a band.
After working with producer Mickie Most on the string of successful albums, Donovan parted ways with Most upon completion of the Barabajagal sessions. He moved back to the UK against the wishes of his management, who objected due to the Britain's heavy taxation and its distance from the American market. For the first two months of 1970, Donovan booked time at London's newly renovated Morgan Studios and began recording and producing the tracks that would form his next album. He made demos of around 20 new songs with just vocals and acoustic guitar, including solo versions of "Changes" and "People Used To", before assembling his new band. Dubbed "Open Road", the band was Donovan on guitar and harmonica, his frequent collaborator "Candy" John Carr on drums, and bassist/guitarist Mike Thompson who'd been a bandmate of Carr's in a group called "Dada Lives" and briefly in an early version of the band Amber. Donovan also hired engineers Robin Black and Mike Bobak, the latter of whom would work on several of Donovan's following albums. The sessions marked Donovan's first time playing electric guitar extensively in the studio, and he also took up producing the record himself. The trio were joined by former Nero and the Gladiators/Heads Hands & Feet keyboardist Mike O'Neill for some of the album's songs, and O'Neill stayed on to play a few gigs with Open Road.
Donovan's intention was for Open Road to be the band he'd tour with indefinitely, primarily by sea on his own yacht. The plan was to leave Britain for one year, in part to avoid the exorbitant tax that the British government was levying on pop stars. The band met up on the Mediterranean isle of Crete to prepare the ship, rehearse material, and document their time there for the film There is an Ocean, which went unreleased until 2005 when it surfaced as a DVD in the box set Try for the Sun: The Journey of Donovan.
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