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CD Album

Artist: Dave Van Ronk Title: Dave Van Ronk Sings Ballads, Blues & A Spiritual Label:   Smithsonian Folkways Country: USA Date: 24 Apr 2007 Catalogue: FS 3818 Barcode: 093070381827 Format: CD Album Collection:   I Own It     I Want It  Community:    Price Guide: Valuation Page » Search eBay #AD  » Search Amazon #AD This site contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated.

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Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
01	Dave Van Ronk	Duncan And Brady	Traditional	Rate
02	Dave Van Ronk	Black Mountain Blues	Traditional	Rate
03	Dave Van Ronk	In The Pines	Traditional	Rate
04	Dave Van Ronk	My Baby's So Sweet	Traditional	Rate
05	Dave Van Ronk	Twelve Gates To The City	Traditional	Rate
06	Dave Van Ronk	Winin' Boy	Jelly Roll Morton	Rate
07	Dave Van Ronk	If You Leave Me Pretty Momma	Dave Van Ronk	Rate
08	Dave Van Ronk	Backwater Blues	Bessie Smith	Rate
09	Dave Van Ronk	Careless Love	W.C. Handy, Spencer Williams	Rate
10	Dave Van Ronk	Betty And Dupree	Traditional	Rate
11	Dave Van Ronk	K.C. Moan	Tewee Blackman	Rate
12	Dave Van Ronk	St. James Infirmary [Gambler's Blues]	Traditional	Rate
13	Dave Van Ronk	John Henry	Traditional	Rate
14	Dave Van Ronk	How Long	Leroy Carr	Rate

Notes

Retains artwork, catalog number, and title of original LP released May 1959 on Folkways. Packaged in cardboard gatefold slipcase. Recorded at Kenneth Goldstein's home studio on Long Island, NY, early 1959.

Arrangement Credits:
Track #1 - Arranged by Dave Van Ronk
Track #5 - Arranged by Reverend Gary Davis

Liner Notes by Dave Van Ronk:
Not infrequently I am taken to task for the manner in which I approach my material. Being of Northern white origin and stressing Southern Negro songs as I do, is, in a way, difficult to justify. I first came into contact with Negro traditional songs through a chance encounter with a recording of Stackolee made by Furry Lewis, a southern street-singer about whom little seems to be known. Taking it to be a form of Jazz, in which I was primarily interested and involved, I made some further investigations and discovered a whole field of music which I had not previously known existed. At this point I don't think I had ever heard a white person sing a Negro song (with the exception of my grandmother who remembered some old cakewalk and ragtime songs from the '90s) and so, having only such singers as Furry Lewis, King Solomon Hill, and Leadbelly for models, when I tried to sing these songs I naturally imitated what I heard, and if I couldn't understand a word here and there I just slurred right along with the singer. At that time, nobody listened to me anyway.

Since then I have learned that the term "folk music" encompasses more than just Blue Tail Fly and On Top of Old Smoky and that there are quite a few white singers who sing the same material that I do with a very different approach from my own. Although I can appreciate the "white approach" to Negro folksongs and enjoy the work of many of its adherents, I still reserve the right to sing these songs in the style to which I am accustomed, partly because of habit, and partly, I confess, because I feel that my way is the "right way."

© 1959 Folkways Records | Smithsoni

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Dave Van Ronk - Dave Van Ronk Sings: Volume 2 - Smithsonian Folkways - USA (2007)

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Various Artists - Classic African American Gospel - Smithsonian Folkways - USA (2008)

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