Really Mellow Yellow: Donovan, the Sixties Singer, Survives Sound Glitch, Jams With Other Geezers

On Thursday, Jan. 31, hippie troubadour Donovan played at the Cutting Room on West 24th Street to a standing-room-only crowd. The occasion was a benefit for the Drukpa Trust, a charity raising funds to open a Montessori school for Himalayan children.

The singer arrived an hour and a half late, an orchestrated entrance for a documentary in progress: strumming his guitar, rose petals falling all over him as he approached the stage, where he launched into “Catch the Wind.”

Behind the bar was actor and Cutting Room co-owner Chris Noth, looking scruffy in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt.

Donovan was joined onstage by a dozen musicians, among them Garth Hudson of the Band, Paul Shaffer and Will Lee of The Late Show With David Letterman, Jimmy Vivino of Late Night With Conan O’Brien and Steve Holley of Wings.

By the time they got to “Season of the Witch,” the place was going nuts, and by “Atlantis,” the audience was waving their arms, getting all hippy-dippy, singing along, cheering, whistling. The encore was “Mellow Yellow,” which had everyone swaying, slurring lyrics and wanting more—so the band kicked back into “Atlantis.” The performance had all the hallmarks of a good psychedelic trip.

There were some sound problems, and the Transom had one of its own: malfunctioning tape recorder.

“Buddy Holly wrote his songs on acoustic guitar, did you know that?” Donovan was saying as the cheap RadioShack contraption went on and off.

“Dylan wrote his first song on an acoustic guitar, did you know that? Elvis wrote his first song on a piano—”

“All I know is that Donovan turned out to be great after all these years,” Mr. Shaffer said. “He really knew what he was doing, he’s terrific. The whole thing was a highlight.”