Dave Van Ronk - Ragtime Jug Stompers (1960, vinyl rip)

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and native New Yorker Dave Van Ronk has inspired, aided, and promoted the careers of numerous singer/songwriters who came up in the blues tradition. Most notable of the many musicians he's helped over the years is Bob Dylan, whom Van Ronk got to know shortly after Dylan moved to New York in 1961 to pursue a life as a folk/blues singer.Van Ronk's recorded output over the years is healthy, but he's never been as prolific a songwriter as some of his friends from that era, like Dylan or Tom Paxton. Instead, the genius of what Van Ronk does lies in his flawless execution and rearranging of classic acoustic blues tunes.

This wild and unrestrained collection of blues, jazz and blues standards makes Van Ronk's "Red Onion" album sound positively subdued. The rave-up of "Everybody Loves My Baby" is an acoustic equivalent of garage bands-to-come for sheer energy. You can tell that he loves these tunes; and in the notes, Van Ronk says he had been planning to start a jug band for a while, since 1958. In any case, it's a record brimming with an energetic spirit.

"As for the jug band, that came about more or less by accident. One weekend Max Gordon, the owner of the Village Vanguard, was in Cambridge for some reason, and he walked by the Club 47 and saw this huge line of people waiting to get in to see the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. In his mind's eye he transposed this queue to 7th Avenue South, where he had his room, and visions of sugarplums started dancing in his head. So when he got back to New York, he called Robert Shelton and said, "Are there any jug bands around town?" Bob said, "Well, yeah, but what you really ought to do is get hold of Dave Van Ronk and have him put one together."

So he did, and I did. I called up a bunch of friends, and we formed the Ragtime Jug Stompers. Sam Charters was back in town, so he was our Pooh-Bah and Lord High Everything Else—he sang, arranged, and played washtub bass, washboard, jug, and occasionally would lend a hand on guitar. Barry Kornfeld played banjo and guitar. Artie Rose was on mandolin, and also played some fine Dobro. Finally, Danny Kalb, who had been a student of mine, played lead guitar and some very nice harmonica. (We also made him sing bass on "K.C. Moan," because he was the youngest and none of us wanted to do it.) It was a very flexible band because the musicians were all good enough to double or triple on various instruments, plus it had all the possibilities offered by kazoos and that sort of thing, so it was capable of more than one kind of sound." - from: "The Mayor of Macdougal Street"

Tracks:

Side A

01 - Everybody Loves My Baby

02 - Stealin

03 - Saint Louis Tickle

04 - Sister Kate

05 - Take I Slow And Easy

06 - Mack The Knife

Side B

07 - Diggin' My Potatoes

08 - Temptation Rag

09 - Shake That Thing

10 - K. C. Moan

11 - Georgia Camp Meeting

12 - You'se A Viper

Dave Van Ronk - Ragtime Jug Stompers (1960, vinly rip)

(320 kbps, cover art included)