As a remedy for the insanity that is the last workday before a holiday weekend, I recommend this clip of Donovan and Bobbie Gentry performing “There is a Mountain” together on Bobbie’s TV show.
Donovan needs no introduction, of course, but Ms. Gentry deserves credit for more than her best-known hit, “Ode to Billy Joe.” Born and raised in rural Chickasaw County, Mississippi, she moved to California in her early teens. As a musician on the nightclub circuit in LA, she used her childhood experiences in the South as inspiration for her expertly crafted lyrics. Her sound was somewhere between sophisticated, pop-oriented country and sweet, mellow blue-eyed soul. Sadly, after the initial success of “Ode,” only her 1968 duet album with Glen Campbell and her 1970 single “Fancy” received much notice in the U.S. charts. Even so, she continued to tour, record, and make numerous television appearances. After 1978, she vanished from the public eye. Apparently she is still alive, but what she has been up to all these years is a mystery.
