Van Ronk Sings

1961 studio album by Dave Van Ronk

Van Ronk Sings

Studio album by

Dave Van Ronk

Released| July 1961[1][2]
Genre| Folk
Label| Folkways (FA 2383)
Dave Van Ronk chronology
| Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers
(1960)  | Van Ronk Sings
(1961)  | Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger
(1963)

|
|

Alternative Cover

Cover of the 1965 LP reissue as Dave Van Ronk Sings the Blues.

Van Ronk Sings is an album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk, released in July 1961.[1][2]

It was also released on LP as Dave Van Ronk Sings the Blues and Dave Van Ronk Sings Earthy Ballads and Blues. All these versions are out of print, but most of the songs can be found on the 1991 Smithsonian Folkways CD release The Folkways Years, 1959–1961 and A Chrestomathy, released on CD in 1992.[3]

## Reception

[edit]

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
Allmusic|  [4]

Writing for Allmusic, critic William Ruhlman wrote of the album "Dave Van Ronk's approach to performing traditional folk songs and blues tunes is sufficiently unusual to require a sleeve note from the singer to justify it. Unlike other white, Northern, urban folksingers, who perform such material but do so in their own natural voices, Van Ronk takes much of his style from the black, Southern, rural singers who have performed it before him... he can sing in a way that serves the material and, despite the attempt at imitation, comes off as his own individual sound."[4]

## Track listing

[edit]

### Side one

[edit]

1. "Bed Bug Blues" – 2:43
2. "Yas-Yas-Yas" (Traditional) – 2:05
3. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (Blind Lemon Jefferson) – 2:54
4. "Tell Old Bill"
5. "Georgie on the IRT" – 3:28
6. "Hesitation Blues" (Rev. Gary Davis) – 2:32
7. "Hootchy Kootchy Man"
8. "Sweet Substitute"

### Side two

[edit]

1. "Dink's Song"
2. "River Come Down" – 3:43
3. "Just a Closer Walk With Thee (Traditional) – 3:00
4. "Come Back Baby" (Walter Davis) – 3:51
5. "Spike Driver's Moan" – 3:11
6. "Standing By My Window"
7. "Willie the Weeper" (Marty Bloom, Walter Melrose, Grant Rymal) – 2:47

## Personnel

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* Dave Van Ronk - guitar, vocals

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Editorial Staff, Billboard (July 24, 1961). "Van Ronk Sings". Billboard Music Week. The Billboard Publishing Co. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
2. ^ a b "Dave Van Ronk Sings". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
3. ^ Dave Van Ronk discography.
4. ^ a b Ruhlman, William. "Van Ronk Sings > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved June 15, 2011.

* v
* t
* e

Dave Van Ronk

Studio albums|

* Dave Van Ronk Sings Ballads, Blues, and a Spiritual (1959)
* Van Ronk Sings (1961)
* Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger (1962)
* In the Tradition (1963)
* Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers (1964)
* Inside Dave Van Ronk (1964)
* Just Dave Van Ronk (1964)
* No Dirty Names (1966)
* Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters (1967)
* Van Ronk (1971)
* Songs for Ageing Children (1973)
* Sunday Street (1976)
* Somebody Else, Not Me (1980)
* Your Basic Dave Van Ronk (1982)
* St. James Infirmary (1983)
* Going Back to Brooklyn (1985)
* Let No One Deceive You (1990)
* Hummin’ to Myself (1990)
* Peter and the Wolf (1990)
* To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places (1994)
* From... Another Time & Place (1995)
* Sweet & Lowdown (2001)

Live albums|

* Dave Van Ronk in Rome (1983)
* Live at Sir George Williams University (1997)
* ...and the tin pan bended and the story ended... (2004)
* On Air (2008)

Compilations|

* Van Ronk (1972)
* Hesitation Blues (1988)
* Inside Dave Van Ronk (1989)
* The Folkways Years, 1959–1961 (1991)
* A Chrestomathy (1992)
* Two Sides of Dave Van Ronk (2002)
* The Mayor of MacDougal Street (2005)
* Bluesmaster (2012)
* Down in Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (2013)

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