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Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vols. 2 & 3

By William Michael Smith

Published: August 9, 2007

Bloodshot's 42 folk standards give new meaning to the term "old school."

Like an Old Testament of folk music, these compilations — 42 songs in all — are both celebration and preservation. Artists ranging from faculty of the 50-year-old titular Chicago institution to Austin honky-tonk legend James Hand to alt-country chanteuse Kelly Hogan play 'em stripped and straight up, taking each performance beyond interpretation to almost worshipful tribute. Emily Hurd's menacing piano rendition of "Hard Travelin'" breathes hobo bravado and travelin' blues; Folk Uke's "Wildwood Flower" sounds as innocent and fresh as the day it was written; and Marvin Etzioni's raw "Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan" rains hellfire and brimstone on preachers of all denominations. Whether written in a prison chain gang or Tin Pan Alley, these songs are so well known, this project could easily have become an embalmed cliché; but the honesty of each performance makes it obvious why songs like "John Henry," "Trouble in Mind" and "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" have become not just American classics but precious cultural baggage in this iPhone and Maroon 5 age.

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Most Popular

It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator

Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.

For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.

"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule

Step back in time — to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak

It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator

Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again

For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.

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Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vols. 2 & 3

By William Michael Smith

Bloodshot's 42 folk standards give new meaning to the term "old school."

Subject(s): Various Artists

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