Name: Folkways Years (1959-1961)
Brand: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
SKU: 422114
Price: 19.74 USD
Availability: InStock

Folkways Years (1959-1961)

Rating

Album: Folkways Years (1959-1961)
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Duncan and Brady	More Info...	0:03
2)	Hesitation Blues	More Info...	0:02
3)	In the Pines	More Info...	0:03
4)	Willie the Weeper	More Info...	0:03
5)	Twelve Gates to the City	More Info...	0:03
6)	River Come Down	More Info...	0:03
7)	Careless Love	More Info...	0:03
8)	Betty and Dupree	More Info...	0:03
9)	Bed Bug Blues	More Info...	0:02
10)	Leave Her Johnny	More Info...	0:01
11)	Yas, Yas, Yas	More Info...	0:02
12)	Please See That My Grave Is Kept Clean	More Info...	0:03
13)	Winin' Boy	More Info...	0:02
14)	Just a Closer Walk With Thee	More Info...	0:03
15)	Gambler's Blues	More Info...	0:02
16)	Spike Driver's Moan	More Info...	0:03
17)	Georgie On the IRT	More Info...	0:03
18)	Come Back Baby	More Info...	0:04
19)	Black Mountain Blues	More Info...	0:04
20)	My Baby's So Sweet	More Info...	0:02

Album: Folkways Years (1959-1961)
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Duncan and Brady	More Info...	0:03
2)	Hesitation Blues	More Info...	0:02
3)	In the Pines	More Info...	0:03
4)	Willie the Weeper	More Info...	0:03
5)	Twelve Gates to the City	More Info...	0:03
6)	River Come Down	More Info...	0:03
7)	Careless Love	More Info...	0:03
8)	Betty and Dupree	More Info...	0:03
9)	Bed Bug Blues	More Info...	0:02
10)	Leave Her Johnny	More Info...	0:01
11)	Yas, Yas, Yas	More Info...	0:02
12)	Please See That My Grave Is Kept Clean	More Info...	0:03
13)	Winin' Boy	More Info...	0:02
14)	Just a Closer Walk With Thee	More Info...	0:03
15)	Gambler's Blues	More Info...	0:02
16)	Spike Driver's Moan	More Info...	0:03
17)	Georgie On the IRT	More Info...	0:03
18)	Come Back Baby	More Info...	0:04
19)	Black Mountain Blues	More Info...	0:04
20)	My Baby's So Sweet	More Info...	0:02

Performer Notes

This collection contains 20 songs.
In his characteristically sardonic liner notes to this compilation of his earliest recordings, Dave Van Ronk denies that he was ever a folksinger. While such a declaration may seem ludicrous on its face, Van Ronk's perspective contributes to an understanding of his musical approach. When he made these recordings for Folkways Records between 1959 and 1961, he was coming out of years of playing banjo and singing (unamplified) with a traditional jazz band; he turned to fingerpicking an acoustic guitar and singing the songs of old folk-blues musicians like Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and the Reverend Gary Davis as the "trad" fad gave way and the folk revival gained momentum in the late `50s. But he continued to play and sing hard, as if still trying to be heard over Dixieland arrangements. That sounded unusual to the more polite folk audiences of the time, in contrast to singers who played tame versions of traditional folk and blues tunes. But more than three decades later, it keeps Van Ronk's performances from sounding as dated as those of many of his peers do. Nobody worries much anymore about an articulate, urban white man trying to sound like an unlettered, rural black man, and these recordings have proven very influential. For example, it's possible to hear a good part of Hot Tuna's acoustic repertoire in the music Van Ronk was making here a decade earlier. If he was imitating the originators at the time, now he sounds like a master whose work has been emulated by the rock musicians who followed him (and who made a lot more money doing so than he ever did). ~ William Ruhlmann