Mike Donovan (Noah)

Mike Donovan, former frontman of experimental rock weirdos Sic Alps, has been a lot of places as a musician. Even just in his lengthy time in the various formations of Sic Alps, Donovan went from at time unlistenable noise to fuzzed out takes on Brit-Pop, to a sort of wailing riff on folk. Sic Alps is gone now though, the many many iterations finally just fading out to nothing and Donovan is on his own with a new album from Drag City.

What, may you ask, is Donovan doing now that he’s taken up the axe solo? Surprisingly, he’s making a pretty conservative, relatively normal take on acoustic blues. There’s a couple of guitars, an enjoyable repetitive guitar twang, and the Donovan’s almost gravelly voice leading it all down a fairly beautiful path of, er, bluesiness. Is it what I was expecting Mike Donovan, cut free of the moorings of band, to do? Not at all. And that’s what’s so great about Donovan, in whatever endeavor he strives to complete, it all sounds good. It all sounds like the unfettered talent of Mike Donovan is in the driver’s seat. And that my friends, is never a bad thing.

:Mike Donovan – New Fieldhand Bop: