Following the all-instrumental Soundtracks Vol. 2, ‘Donovan Dreams’ is the first solo Naylor vocal recording in over a decade.
Ashley Naylor – guitarist for the church, The Stems, Paul Kelly & The Rockwiz Orkestra, singer/songwriter/guitarist with beloved Melbourne band Even, and co-conspirator in The Grapes, The Ronson Hangup and Monterey Honey – begins another new phase of his career with delicious ode to ’60s Scottish psychedelic folkster Donovan (‘Mellow Yellow’, ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’, ‘Sunshine Superman’ etc.).
‘Donovan Dreams’ continues in the heady tradition of Naylor’s work on Even’s massively-acclaimed double album Reverse Light Years and follows the acclaimed instrumental solo guitar album Soundtracks Vol. 2 and the birth of his new solo band Spaceship. As Naylor says of the single and the inspiration behind it, “There’s something enchanting about music from the sixties that still transports me to a world that seems magical and almost dreamlike. I’m striving to create this state of mind with every song I record…”
‘Donovan Dreams’ is Naylor’s first vocal solo recording in over a decade and the first solo recording on which Naylor himself plays everything. It is the first taste of what promises to be an exciting new album to be released in 2025.
Currently on tour with the RocKwiz Orkestra, Naylor will launch ‘Donovan Dreams’ with shows in Melbourne and Adelaide in December, with dates and additional locations to be announced in coming days.
2024 has been another remarkable year for Ashley Naylor. It really started in late 2023, with the release of the solo album Soundtracks Vol 2, which took inspiration from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Dickey Betts, Peter Frampton, Eddie Hazel, David Axelrod and more recent artists like AIR and Spiritualized.
Naylor formed a new band Spaceship to perform this and his other solo music, and on record and on stage, he made a significant impression with his instrumental guitar music in the early months of the year before spending a good portion of time touring locally and internationally with The Church and The Stems, and recording Paul Kelly’s forthcoming new album Fever Longing Still. In amongst all that, he also managed to slip in an EP by a new guitar-pop project – on which he sang and played drums – named Monterey Honey, which he formed in partnership with old friend David Preston, former member of UK band My Drug Hell.
Soundtracks Vol 2 was Naylor’s first album release since Even’s massively-acclaimed 2021 ARIA Top 20 Double album Reverse Light Years, but it wasn’t the first new release of 2023 to feature Naylor’s remarkable playing; most notably in that year he appeared throughout The Church’s album The Hypnogogue, which was his first album with the iconic group he joined in 2020.
Also, in 2023 Naylor played on Paul Kelly’s cover of the Sunnyboys’ classic ‘Alone with You’, and on the ARIA Top 10 album Hey Dawn by up and coming Australian alt-country superstar Fanny Lumsden. He was also all over the acclaimed album Centaurus by The Ronson Hangup, another long-term project which he fronts alongside former Anyones singer and songwriter Steve Pinkerton, and 2023 also saw a lot of touring with both Paul Kelly and The Church. The Church in particular kept Naylor busy in 2023, with two lengthy US tours and more.