Tom Paxton - Ain´t That News (1965)

Tom Paxton proved to be one of the most durable of the singer/songwriters to emerge from the Greenwich Village folk revival scene of the early '60s. In some ways, he had more in common with the late-'50s generation of folksingers such as Dave Van Ronk (who was 16 months his senior) and even older performers than with the new crop of singer/songwriters with whom he tended to be associated, such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs (both of whom were several years his junior). But like Dylan and Ochs, and unlike Van Ronk, Paxton was a songwriter caught up in the left-wing political movements of the time and inspired to compose topical and protest songs. In general, his tended to be more lighthearted than theirs (the musical satirist Tom Lehrer was at least as much of an influence on him as Woody Guthrie), though he could be just as witty and just as harshly critical of his opponents. Like such mentors as Pete Seeger, and unlike Dylan, he never cared to make much of a transition to the mainstream, never picked up an electric guitar and tried to play rock & roll.

Tom Paxton's second album was one of his most earnest efforts, and that serious narrative tone, combined with the fading of the issues it addresses (the Vietnam War, the draft, the Civil Rights movement) off the national radar, makes much of it dated and some of it stilted. Nonetheless, it does have one of his most effective anti-war pieces; "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation," in fact, is one of the better anti-Vietnam folk songs of the 1960s. There's also "Bottle of Wine," one of Paxton's best and most tuneful compositions, and one of his most-covered ones (by Judy Collins at the tail end of her folk era and then by the Fireballs a few years later for a pop/rock hit). Felix Pappalardi (on bass) and Barry Kornfeld (on second guitar and banjo) do add a bit of depth to the arrangements, yet many of the songs are a dry listen, though Paxton's observations are consistently well-thought out and well-intended. He could have used more lighthearted moments like "Bottle of Wine," or more romantic ones like "Hold On to Me Babe" (which Sandy Denny covered on an unreleased 1967 recording). And, in fact, he would use more such moments on his subsequent albums.

Tracklist

A1	Ain't That News	1:32
A2	The Willing Conscript	2:32
A3	Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation	3:00
A4	Hold On To Me Babe	3:10
A5	The Name Of The Game Is Stud	1:55
A6	Bottle Of Wine	2:21
A7	The Natural Girl For Me	2:37
B1	Goodman, Schwerner And Chaney	2:41
B2	We Didn't Know	2:22
B3	Buy A Gun For Your Son	2:30
B4	Every Time	3:09
B5	Georgie On The Freeways	3:09
B6	Sully's Pail	3:11
B7	I'm The Man That Built The Bridges	2:47

Tom Paxton - Ain´t That News (1965)
(256 kbps, cover art included)