Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougle Street

It is incredable how so many people can speak of the 60s folk revival, and drop names like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Joni Mitchell, etc and not mention one of the cornerstones of the whole thing, Dave Van Ronk.

It's one of the tragedies of my life that I found his music literally months after he died. It only compounded the tragedy to find out he not only toured his whole life, but was in Montreal (my home town) pretty much every year for the Jazz Festival. I now have most of his works, and still, every now and then I run accross something that makes me look at the man in a different light. Lets see, theres Inside Dave Van Ronk, and Dave Van Ronk: The Folkways Years that show an absolutely incredable folk artist. His rendition of Samson and Delilah is beyond stellar, and he has hands down the best Cocaine Blues I have ever heard. Theres Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers, which is (go figure) him with a ragtime jug band (for those who don't know, ragtime is this wonderful happy-go-lucky offshoot of the blues that was quite popular for a time in the 20s and 30s). Then theres In The Tradition, which is Dave with the Red Onion Jazz Band. Then you have Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters which is Dave with a rock band. And last but not least, the absolute bevy of albums with Dave, solo on his guitar, doing fingerstyle arrangements of Jazz songs. In each of these variations and permutations he brings his distinctive and powerful voice, not to mention unique enthusiasm, to create some of my favorite music. If I had to choose my five favorite artists, he would be one I wouldnt think twice about naming.

While his voice is certainly enough to make the man worth checking out, it is his guitar technique which will keep you comming back for more. For those who don't know, fingerstyle means picking out leads with your fingers, while your thumb backs you up on the bass strings. Its an absolutely wonderful way of playing, simply because it is so versitile. Jazz is quite a complex form of music, many instraments doing quite a bit, but Dave was able to successfully arrange songs so that it sounds just wonderful, even though he's just one guy. This is also the way one plays classical on the guitar, if you can arrange mozart on a single guitar, you can do pretty much anything. Dave however has more a backwoods style, using only three fingers instead of four, which is closer to banjo style then classical guitar. However, he was so damn good, three fingers is more then enough. As someone just learning, listening to something like The Entertainer on this album is enough to make you cry.

It would be an injustice to talk about Dave without mentioning his profound impact on music. Bob Dylan is probably the most influential musician of our time, and while he comes directly from Woody, Dave was his first mentor in new york, getting him his first gigs at the Gaslight Cafe, which was one of the more prestigious venues of the New York folk scene. Joni Mitchell was another one of his proteges, as was Phil Ochs, the real king of protest music (Dylan never was, and never wanted to be, but thats a topic for another blog... or two).

Somebody Else, Not Me is one of my favorite albums. Michigan Water Blues is absolutely hilarious. Somebody Else, Not Me is Dave at his finest, the man's delivery is beyond reproach. The Entertainer is one of the best arrangements I've heard of the song. Theres a decent cover of Pastures of Plenty by Woody Guthrie near the end of the album, and the last track is a quite good cover of Song to Woody by Dylan. If you like this album, I highly recommend his last show (released as ...and the Tin Pan bended, and the story ended... published by Smithsonian/Folkways), and theres a wonderful Stephen Grossman DVD called Dave Van Ronk, In Concert at the Bottom Line.

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