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