Anthology of American Folk Songs

Barbara Dane presented 15 traditional songs on this acoustic outing, accompanied by her guitar and by Tom Paley of the New Lost City Ramblers on guitar and banjo. Dane sings in a low, rich voice on this stark but effective collection, and it's easy to hear how she might have been an influence on, or at least an ancestor of, 1960s bluesy white folk and folk-rock singers such as Judy Henske and Tracy Nelson. Although some of the songs had been and would go around the block many times — "Nine Hundred Miles," "Girl of Constant Sorrow," "Gypsy Davy," and "Greensleeves," for instance — Dane's interpretations are committed and somberly moving. It's a good folk album for the era, well above the average in terms of guts and feeling.