Van Ronk sums up this album well with his own notes; "I never really thought of myself as a 'folksinger' at all. Still don't. What I did was to combine traditional fingerpicking guitar with a repertoire of old jazz tunes." This then is the first recorded statement, not of a folk musician, but of a kind of jazz manqun. On this album Van Ronk covers folk and blues songs such as "Hesitation Blues," "Twelve Gates to the City," and Spike Dreiver's "Moan." ~ Richard Meyer, All Music Guide

CD $16.13

Somewhat confusingly titled, this CD reissue includes both the 1962 album of the same name and the Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger LP (recorded around the same time), encompassing 25 tracks in all. Anyway, this is certainly Van Ronk's most enduring work, and indeed one of the few relics of the early-'60s traditional folk boom that holds up well today. With the possible exception of Bob Dylan (whom Van Ronk and his wife helped immensely when Dylan was a struggling unknown in New York), Dave w...   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

This two-on-one single-CD pairing of sessions from 1963 and 1981 isn't the most logical chronological mating, but Van Ronk's style was consistent enough throughout his career that it's not jarring, though neither album is among his very best. The first half of the disc is devoted to the whole of the 1963 In the Tradition album, which was evenly split between tracks on which the singer is backed by the Dixieland jazz-style combo the Red Onions and by more customary acoustic folk-blues solo gu...   [ read more ]

CD $11.38