Search - Various Artists :: Folk Duets

A Lot of Fun!

04/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great folk collection. Some of the music is performed by the songwriters - not the artists that made the hit - so the versions of the songs are different and surprising. We bought the CD for the "Bold Marauder" which is a truly great piece of music!! The recording of "It Ain't Me Babe" by Dylan and Joan Baez is so funny that this CD is worth buying just for the comedy value! Everytime I hear it I break out laughing!!"

Nostalgia at its best

M. J. Smith | Seattle, WA USA | 02/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Frequently albums created from old material for the "nostalgia market" contain considerable second rate material. That is not true of this collection. Ian & Sylvia were the most prominent duo in the folk music era - they are represented by 5 tracks. Geoff and Maria Muldaur were best known as members of the Jim Kweskin Jugband where their duets were high points of the albums. Mimi & Richard Farina were less well known - primarily due to Richard's death which had a stiffling impact on the duo - but they are still represented by 4 tracks. From a more country orientation there are the duo's of Flatt and Scruggs as wells as Doc Watson and Merle Travis. The remainder of this collection are names big in the solo market - Joan Baez, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Theodore Bikel ...One could scarcely build a better cross-section of the best of the folk duets of the era. Mimi and Richard Farina's "Pack Up Your Sorrows" is a splendid rendition that often gets forgotten among the other excellent renditions. Their Bold Marauder is a dark gem that would fit well with some of the current Celtic resurgence. Doc Watson and Merle Travis' Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arm is another gem forgotten among the many renditions. The weakest piece is Judy Collins & Theodore Bikel's The Greenland Whale Fisheries ... simply because it remains simply one of several excellent interpretations. When Collins/Bikel can be the low point, one is speaking of an excellent album."