Open Road is the eighth studio album, and ninth overall, from Scottish 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. Dubbed "Open Road", the band was Donovan's frequent collaborator "Candy" John Carr on drums, and bassist/guitarist Mike Thomson, 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, but O'Neill is nonetheless not regarded as a core member of Open Road. 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. They recorded and released the 1971 album Windy Daze The song, "Poke at the Pope" decries religious faith, particularly Catholicism. "Song for John" was one of Donovan's epistles written for his friends, this one dedicated to fellow songwriter John Sebastian. "New Year's Resovolution" was inspired by Paul McCartney who, fresh from his break with The Beatles, was recording his first solo album in the studio below Donovan, as the two musicians saw themselves transitioning out of the 1960s and heading into new directions with their music. McCartney also loaned Donovan a guitar for some of the recording of Open Road.

Releases and reception

Open Road was released on vinyl LP in North America on Epic in July 1970, and then in the UK on Dawn Records in September. The album's cover features a photo, taken by Donovan's best friend "Gypsy Dave" Mills, of Donovan flanked by his two bandmates with their names typewritten in small print beneath each person. Some versions of the record featured neither Donovan's name nor the album title on the front, highlighting the name "Open Road" on the back, both as the album's title and as the name of the band featured on it. Other versions highlighted either "Donovan" or "Open Road" on the front.

Open Road was Donovan's third-highest charting album in the U.S., reaching No. 17 within two weeks of its release and peaking at No. 16. In Canada the album reached No. 8 and the single "Riki Tiki Tavi" reached No. 35. In the U.K. the album reached No. 30.

In August 2000, the German label Repertoire Records reissued Open Road for the first time on CD.

Track listing

All tracks by Donovan Leitch.

Side One

  1. "Changes" – 2:56
  2. "Song for John" – 2:43
  3. "Curry Land" 4:38
  4. "Joe Bean's Theme" – 2:52
  5. "People Used To" – 4:09
  6. "Celtic Rock" – 3:37

Side two

  1. "Riki Tiki Tavi" – 2:55
  2. "Clara Clairvoyant" – 2:57
  3. "Roots of Oak" – 4:53
  4. "Season of Farewell" – 3:25
  5. "Poke at the Pope" – 2:47
  6. "New Year's Resovolution" – 4:45

Running lengths for some tracks on the iTunes download album differ, mostly due to the removal of seaside sound effects at the end of several tracks.

Personnel

  • Donovan Leitch – guitar, mouth harp, vocals
  • Mike Thomson – guitar, bass guitar, vocals
  • John Carr – drums, vocals

;Additional personnel

  • Mike O'Neill – piano, vocals
  • Robin Black – engineer
  • Mike Bobak – engineer

Tributes

  • For the 1992 Donovan tribute album Island of Circles, the band When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water performed "Riki Tiki Tavi" and Black Sox covered "Changes".
  • Celtic folk musician Jack Montgomery recorded a version of "Roots of Oak" with his own lyrics on his 2004 album Everywhere I Look.

Charts

{| class="wikitable"

! Chart (1970)

! Peak<br />position

|-

| US Billboard Top LPs

| align="center"|16

|-

| US Cashbox Top 100 Albums

| align="center"|14

|-

| CAN RPM Top 100 Albums