Going Back to Brooklyn [Remaster]

Performer: Dave Van Ronk
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Dave Van Ronk (vocals, guitar). Engineers: Chuck Ellis, Alan Mattes, Bruce Bartone. Recorded at The Barn, North Ferrisburg, Vermont. Includes liner notes by Rosalie Sorrels. Personnel: Dave Van Ronk (vocals, guitar). When Dave Van Ronk defined urban folk music in the late-'50s/early-'60s, songwriting wasn't much of an option; one sang the folk and blues standards of the time and tried to invest them with some originality. It wasn't until people like Bob Dylan and Eric Andersen came along that original material found its way into the folk boom. Thus, others wrote the majority of material in Van Ronk's esteemed catalogue. On this 1991 recording, though, he looks back at his small-but-powerful cache of original songs written over the course of his long career. Though some of the songs were written many years earlier, the older Van Ronk invests them with an added level of emotion and subtlety. From the humorous existentialism of "Losers" to the ominous, surreal blues "Head Inspector," Van Ronk proves as talented at composition as he is at performance--no small task.

Mojo (Publisher) (p.132) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Sometimes tender, sometimes bawdy, frequently hilarious but always honest, Van Ronk was the very embodiment of the best in American folk."

Dave Van Ronk grew up in Brooklyn, but as a young man he absorbed the folk, jazz, and blues traditions of the south, and integrated them into his raw, organic style as a singer/guitarist. His approach to fingerpicking incorporated both country blues patterns and a strong ragtime influence, and his gravelly singing was as gritty and authentic-sounding as that of any Delta bluesman. He began recording in the late '50s, at the vanguard of the folk revival, and became an inspiration to the entire Greenwich Village folk scene. In addition to being a musical role model, he actively mentored the likes of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. Van Ronk never attained the star status of some of his disciples, but he never stopped making records and playing concerts, and remained true to his musical instincts until his death in 2002.

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