Search - Dave Van Ronk :: & The Tin Pan Bended & The Story Ended

Just before the curtain fell

Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 02/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

A Reflection more than a Review

David E. Eisner | silver spring, md USA | 07/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

The Man Speaks!

D.W. Ditty | Connecticut | 07/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."