This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Hey, whaddaya know? Turns out Woodstock refugee Richie Havens does know some songs besides Freedom.
Too bad that Wishing Well — his first real album in nearly a decade — proves he doesn’t know many good ones. From start to finish, this is one terminally mellow disc, drifting in and out of consciousness as Havens lazily strums his acoustic guitar and smokily croons about Paradise, Stardust and Passion and Handouts In The Rain. A droning cover of Pink Floyd’s On The Turning Away and a soulful reworking of Gary Wright’s Love Is Alive add some colour to the proceedings, but ultimately, Wishing Well doesn’t deliver on its promises.
