In 1957,
Folkways Records
released
Pete Seeger
's
American Favorite Ballads
, his renditions of some of the better-known songs in the traditional folk repertoire. Of course, the selection was far from exhaustive, so in 1958
Folkways
followed with this second volume.
Seeger
draws from many different sources, beginning with
Stephen Foster
"Oh, Susanna!,"
which is old enough to be considered a folk song. Tunes like
"Sally Ann,"
"Shenandoah,"
and
"Careless Love"
have country & western origins. Naturally,
looks to his two major mentors,
Woody Guthrie
for
"Hard Traveling,"
and particularly
Lead Belly
. Taking up the 12-string guitar,
's instrument,
presents his own versions of
"Midnight Special,"
"Black Girl,"
"Alabama Bound,"
played as
would. (
"Midnight Special"
even gets an extra verse referring to him.) While some of the performances are loud and boisterous,
gives
"Shenandoah"
a nearly a cappella treatment, only occasionally using a banjo chord, and he sings
"Black Is the Color"
unaccompanied. Thus, the album has considerable variety in terms of the type of material and the approach
takes. Of course, there's still plenty more where these came from. ~ William Ruhlmann