With summer finally upon us and one of the strangest periods in recent times hopefully coming to a close, DONIE O returns to the airwaves with his version of a suitably reflective classic, the great GORDON LIGHTFOOT hit, EARLY MORNIN’ RAIN.

The song, which first appeared on Lightfoot’s 1966 debut album, Lightfoot!, and again on his 1977 collection, Gord’s Gold (as a re-recorded version), will be the second single from Donie O’s forthcoming second album. As the follow-up to last year’s radio hit, A Picture Of You, the Tipp man hopes this record will offer fans a further glimpse into the variety and range his new long-player will have to offer…

“When I was deciding on what single to release next, I was doing it with the new album very much in mind. So I knew I wanted to pick a song that would reflect the fact that this album will be a miscellany of music. ‘A Picture Of You’, as that almost textbook, prime example of a feel-good, genre and generation crossing hit, was just the first glimpse into what’s to come. ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’, on the other hand, is a more considered, more thoughtful, and more solitary kind of song. And there’ll be some moments like this on the album, too. But we’ve also put a twist on this song that will bring it to people in a way they’ve never quite heard it before, I think.”

For Donie O, as ‘normal’ life begins to resume, the need to acknowledge the unexpected pause of the last year or so is every bit as important as rushing headlong back into the way things were, as he explains…

“Whether we wanted it or not, we all ended up with a lot of time on our hands when life as we had always known it suddenly ground to a halt. And I think we all ended up spending a little – and maybe a lot – of that time missing life as we had known it until that point. And essentially, ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’, being a song about homesickness, manages to encapsulate those very same emotions. It’s amazing to think that Lightfoot wrote it so long ago when he was living in L.A. and missing Canada, and yet, we can just as easily take that feeling and transfer it to events of so recently as well.”

While Lightfoot wrote the song and released it in 1966, he wasn’t actually the first artist to cut and bring it to public attention. That claim-to-fame rests with Canadian husband and wife pairing Ian and Sylvia who did so a year earlier. Early Mornin’ Rain was also recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and by The Grateful Dead.

Donie O’ s second studio album is scheduled for release towards the end of 2021.