& The Tin Pan Bended & The Story Ended

Dave Van Ronk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Smithsonian Folkways
• ASIN: B0002739TK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,196 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

NARAS

Nominated for 2005 GRAMMY® award

Product Description

For a performer who never dreamt of being a "folksinger," Dave Van Ronk left a deep mark on the entire folksong revival. His jazz-trained voice, masterful guitar technique, and sharp wit endeared him to audiences everywhere; his generosity of spirit earned him friendship with artists such as Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Mississippi John Hurt, and Christine Lavin. This October 2001 recording of his last concert features the incomparable "Mayor of MacDougal Street" at his lively best.

AWARDS
2005 GRAMMY Award Nominee for Best Traditional Folk Album

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just before the curtain fell, February 17, 2005

By 

Jerome Clark (Canby, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: & The Tin Pan Bended & The Story Ended (Audio CD)

This is one of those rare perfect recordings which feel like something larger than a mere compact disc. It is the last concert Dave Van Ronk ever gave, shortly after he received the diagnosis that he had cancer. Within five months he was dead. But Van Ronk does not sound like a sick man on this sparkling night in Takoma Park, Maryland. In his singing he is a pro in top form. The songs will be familiar to those who have followed Van Ronk's career, mostly blues, vintage African-American jazz and pop songs, and relatively more recent folk-based material by Van Ronk friends Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell (whose "Urge for Going" closes the set). If I'm not mistaken, only Dylan's "Buckets of Rain" is new to the recorded repertoire. Still, Van Ronk was always expert at finding fresh depths of meaning in songs he had long been singing, and every time he did "Sportin' Life Blues" or "Green, Green Rocky Road" or "St. James Infirmary," it sounded newly alive and somehow different.

It's the stories that give one the sense that Van Ronk knew his past was what was left to him, and that it would sustain him in the short, hard future that awaited. Van Ronk, whom I knew slightly and who read a couple of my books, was the greatest storyteller I have ever heard. When I saw him, I would ask him questions I liked to think he hadn't been asked before, and he always had a riveting, hilarious, sometimes bawdy anecdote in store. This CD preserves not just the tales -- of old, long-gone musicians, of songs, of days of his life -- but the telling.

Van Ronk's memoirs will be published in May, and they will be well worth reading, but you will not hear, at least with your ears, his voice speaking to you. For that, we have this magnificent recording.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reflection more than a Review, July 1, 2004

By 

David E. Eisner "Spadoukie" (silver spring, md USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: & The Tin Pan Bended & The Story Ended (Audio CD)

This is not a crass plug to get you to buy this recording. I was the producer of this concert,I was the F.O.H.engineer,and I was the recording engineer.(And in many ways, I was the blind squirrel finding the acorn)I am completely humbled by the astonishing number of people who worked on this recording package out of a sense of love and compassion and honor to give back to Dave Van Ronk the same qualities he so graciously gave to others. Dave was the lynchpin between the jazz,blues,and early folk music emerging from the 1920's-1940's that went hurtling into the first folk scare of the 1960's! My God, I am honored to be a part of this. And thank you to NYC for naming a street in the Village for Dave.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Man Speaks!, July 7, 2004

By 

D.W. Ditty (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: & The Tin Pan Bended & The Story Ended (Audio CD)

This CD of Van Ronk's last concert, given right after he was diagnosed with cancer, captures the essence of a true national treasure. 14 Songs take up alot of the 79 plus minutes and they are wonderful. Nearly half the cd, though, are the amazing anecdotes he offers up to give depth to the music as well as a peek into an incredible life. If I could come back as any musician, living or dead, it would be as Dave Van Ronk at this concert.