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 wa   [ 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 gui   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

A live festival appearance during Expo '67 -- a Canadian version of the World Fair -- is the setting for this single CD performance by late, great folky Dave Van Ronk. While the recording is of a spurious nature, this is a rare opportunity for future generations to experience the undeniable musicality and incisive wit of one of the premier talents and founding fathers of the Washington Square generation of folk music. The timelessness of Van Ronk's laid-back and practically conversational sty   [ read more ]

CD $12.33

Rekindling his love for classic jazz, Van Ronk puts together a string of American standards and, along with a seven-piece band of seasoned session players, makes the kind of music he grew up listening to. The tunes swing along with Van Ronk's mildly Louis Armstrong-flavored rasp, which holds up throughout. As on his 1990 release, Hummin' to Myself, Van Ronk is accompanied (as opposed to his usual solo outings), and he is joined by female vocalists Sarah Partridge on {&"Thanks for the   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

"The role of singer/songwriter has never much appealed to me," writes Dave Van Ronk in the liner notes to this album, and it may seem like an odd remark for a performer who had a lot to do with promoting the careers of such singer/songwriters as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. But what Van Ronk means is that he has never been much interested in taking on the role of singer/songwriter for himself. Although he is usually mentioned in sentences that include the names of Dylan, Mitchell,   [ read more ]

CD $13.28

Dave Van Ronk did as much as anyone to midwife and instill quality control in the urban folk boom of the early '60s, and his death in 2002 signaled for many the passing of an era. Now Smithsonian Folkways has issued his last concert, held in October 2001 in Takoma Park, and from the opening song, a delicately sung version of Scrapper Blackwell's "Down South Blues," it is obvious that listeners are in the midst of an autumnal performance. Van Ronk's deliberate jazz phrasing is still ther   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Dave Van Ronk's death in 2002 took away one of the key architects of the Great Folk Revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and while Van Ronk never made the kind of broad cultural impact that younger musicians like Bob Dylan or Joan Baez made at the time, his steady mentoring is everywhere apparent in the urban folk movement of the day. Known as a gruff-voiced singer of blues and folk songs, and as a skilled acoustic guitar player, Van Ronk was actually a jazz player at hea   [ read more ]

CD $14.23

CD $18.98