Peter Massey penned this review.
It is a re-mastered album from about 1956. Jean Ritchie and Paul Clayton will need no introduction to folk music fans in America, because Jean Ritchie has been at the forefront of the American revivalist singers for over 60 years. At the age of 83 she is still active in the music world, although Paul Clayton died in his early 30s in 1967. Jean Ritchie passed away in 2015.
On this set of songs, Jean and Paul take turns singing the lead vocal, and sometimes sing together. The songs are interspersed with stories and anecdotes told by Richard Chase. As a Brit I found these very interesting, mainly because they are narrated by Richard in his native Alabama (think Forrest Gump) accent. The manner in which Richard tells the stories has stood the test of time, while Jean’s and Paul’s songs obviously sound dated. The singers reminded me of my junior school music teachers Miss Ponceby-Smith and Mr Llellwyn Robert, singing ‘The Old Grey Goose is Dead’ and ‘The Riddle Song’, doing their best to instil some culture into a class of 10-year-old ruffians. That’s the way the songs were sung back then. I’d like to think my teachers took some influence from Jean and Paul, and in fact I am sure they did.
This album serves to remind us of how folk music has moved — foreword, I hope — over the past 50 years, both in the performance and interpretation. I have heard some of the songs here, including ‘The Bashful Courtship’, ‘Locks and Bolts’, ‘The Deaf Woman’s Courtship’, and ‘The Old Grey Goose is Dead’ sung quite a lot over the years, with each artist giving the songs his or her own interpretation. That’s the wonderful thing about folk music, ‘the folk song process’ — and long may it reign.
So if you want an album of ‘real’ traditional American folk songs, this is one for you.
(Empire Musicwerks, 2006)
