Although Barbara Dane is chiefly thought of these days as a blues singer (she even recorded an album with Lightnin' Hopkins, 1964's Sometimes I Believe She Loves Me, where she more than holds her own with the Texas bluesman), she came to the blues through the folk door, and this wonderful set, recorded in 1959 at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, shows that she understood the feel and emotional tone of the blues even before she officially turned to it. Featuring her husky, expressive voice and solid acoustic guitar playing, with occasional help from Tom Paley (of the New Lost City Ramblers) on second guitar or banjo, these 15 tracks have a depth and immediacy frequently lacking in similar collections from other urban folk singers of the so-called Folk Revival. Where other singers of the day might present songs like "When I Was a Young Girl," "Nine Hundred Miles" (or "Five Hundred Miles" or however many miles you want to make it) or Woody Guthrie's "Ramblin'" as brittle, stylized and often sanitized facsimiles, Dane's amazingly soulful singing personalizes them, and in her hands these familiar songs seem both freshly born and truly lived. Tradition Records released the original LP, and the sequence has been issued a few times since, most recently in 1997. It remains a little known high point of the Folk Revival, the debut album of a powerful and graceful singer. by Steve Leggett
Tracklist:
1 When I Was A Young Girl 3:26
Traditional
2 Little Maggie 2:57
Traditional
3 Nine Hundred Miles 2:09
Traditional
4 Turkey Reveille 4:24
Traditional
5 Who's Gonna' Shoe Your Pretty Feet 3:27
Traditional
6 Ramblin' 2:41
Traditional
Lyrics By – Woody Gutherie
Music By – Barbara Dane
7 Girl Of Constant Sorrow 3:46
Traditional
8 Gypsy Davy 2:05
Traditional
9 Single Girl 2:02
Traditional
10 I Know Where I'm Going 2:23
Traditional
11 The Danville Girl 2:48
Traditional
12 Stung Right 2:10
Traditional
Lyrics By – Joe Hill
13 Greensleeves 3:58
Traditional
14 La Le Too Dum 3:00
Traditional
15 Don't Sing Love Songs 3:43
Traditional
Music By – Bessie Mercer
Créditos
Adapted By, Vocals, Guitar – Barbara Dane
Guitar, Banjo – Tom Paley
