Robert Gould<\/a>, a co-owner and Producer of Faerieworlds, has written an eloquent appreciation exploring why this artist fits so well into the ethos our event inhabits. I greatly enjoyed reading it, and I felt that many of you would as well.]<\/p>\n\u201cWhy Donovan?\u201d is a question we have been asked since we announced his\u00a0landmark appearance at our event in Eugene, OR on July 29th, several months\u00a0ago.<\/p>\n
A master of the poetic evocation of place, character and emotion, Donovan is,\u00a0first and foremost a storyteller in the bardic tradition. Tales of love, longing loss,\u00a0rapture, adventure, crisis, mystics, heroes, heroines and above all, devotion fill\u00a0his songbook. Tactile and sensual, these stories have deep roots in mythic and\u00a0folkloric tales of the Land and the cultural, often timeless challenges faced by\u00a0humanity within our global community.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like any great artist, Donovan sees and uses words and music as symbols for\u00a0ideas and emotions; rarely are his expressions fixed or overtly literal. He seeks\u00a0and showcases the inherent poetry within words and the syllabic rhythms they\u00a0contain as best evidenced in \u201cWear You Love Like Heaven.\u201d Melodies often\u00a0flow over a drone of instrument or voice, serving as an inner mantra for the\u00a0expression of the lyric. He has a respect for and appreciation of the importance\u00a0of poignant, delicate and fragile musical moments that produce enormous\u00a0emotional impact: within even in his most dramatic songs there is a heart of\u00a0suspended stillness. Such moments become fixed in time and memory and\u00a0produce instantaneous, visceral recall when heard even decades later.<\/p>\n
His gentle, often whispered voice with its warm, Northern burr creates a\u00a0seductive intimacy that quietly commands attention. The master of the sideways\u00a0glance, Donovan rarely addresses any subject directly; all is liquid, evolving,\u00a0emerging. His lyrics do not offer obvious observations or insights, they are as if\u00a0observed in a mirror, tempered by a poetic symbol or provocative metaphor. His\u00a0music is welcoming and seductive, accounting in part for the exceptional number\u00a0of artists he has inspired or influenced. His unique finger style method alone has\u00a0spawned a celebrated lineage of the finest guitar players of our time.<\/p>\n
httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=leI7sfmipuI<\/p>\n
The most common and unifying quality of great art is ambiguity: it\u2019s ability to\u00a0be experienced and interpreted by people of any gender, age, culture or time.\u00a0Donovan\u2019s music shares this rare, open quality: it is most often simple in form\u00a0and melody but at the same time elusive and ephemeral. He hangs his art in the\u00a0air and subjects it to the harmonizing influence of the elements. Never dogmatic,\u00a0he addresses social issues as a poet, not as a politician and avoids literal\u00a0conversations about power within his art.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning, Donovan\u2019s spiritual practice has been at the heart of his\u00a0physical, emotional and spiritual life. He joins George Harrison as a pioneer and\u00a0champion of introducing and popularizing the philosophies and music of the East\u00a0to the West during the 60s and 70s and his presence, influence and support lies\u00a0at the foundation of much of what we call alternative culture today. His work has\u00a0transcended being solely linked to two world-shifting decades because his music,\u00a0poetry and the subjects of his art are timeless.<\/p>\n
In a rampant consumer and celebrity obsessed culture that is addicted to the\u00a0empty calories of entraining, metronomic beats and autotuned robo-voices,\u00a0Donovan\u2019s music reminds us of the transcendent power of a compelling melody\u00a0and a poetically crafted lyric to touch the human heart and soul and bring\u00a0Meaning, if only for a moment, to our all too temporal lives, To accomplish this,\u00a0Donovan sources his art from something greater than himself. It is evident\u00a0that his lifetime practice of meditation has produced an enormous bounty. For\u00a0Donovan, life, art and music are a ceremony of innocence and a sacrament of\u00a0devotion. He lives and creates today in joyful celebration of and in service to\u00a0Spirit and Beauty, a wise and accomplished artist and poet humbled before the\u00a0greatness and vastness of the Universe to which he knows he shall return.<\/p>\n
Simply put: Donovan is an artist very much of our time and completely embodies\u00a0the intention, heart and spirit of Faerieworlds. Donovan has always been and\u00a0remains to this day, an artist for the ages.<\/p>\n
httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CowuTT_o6aw<\/p>\n
[I\u2019d like to thank Robert Gould for sharing this with us. Donovan performs at Faerieworlds, the music and arts festival in Eugene, OR, on\u00a0July 29, 2012. For more information, visit: www.faerieworlds.com<\/a>. Stay tuned, because I may soon have an exclusive interview with Donovan to share, one that I think many Pagans will find interesting.]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[While I like to keep something of a firewall between my work at The Wild Hunt, and my job at\u00a0Mythic Events, the folks who put on Faerieworlds in Eugene, and the FaerieCons in Seattle and Baltimore, I felt that in this case an exception was in order. Faerieworlds, while not\u00a0explicitly\u00a0Pagan, is steeped in the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[164,3497,754,761,1554,3499,1855,3498,3500,2208],"class_list":["post-9624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-art","tag-donovan","tag-faerieworlds","tag-fantasy","tag-music","tag-mythic","tag-poetry","tag-robert-gould","tag-rock-n-roll-hall-of-fame","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
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