Search - Various Artists :: Philadelphia Folk Festival - 40th Anniversary

Naturally, this remarkable four-disc set celebrates 40 years of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, but it also serves as a compelling and diverse history of modern folk music itself. The performances included here run the whole gamut of the genre: from early-1960s recordings by authentic purveyors of traditional blues and country such as Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Doc Watson, to urban revivalists like Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Pete Seeger, to protest folkies such as Phil Ochs, to confessional singer-songwriters, folk-rockers, pristine-voiced divas, bluegrass pickers, Celtic, Eastern European, and Latino preservationists, and everything in between. Among the many highlights of this 58-track set are a solo blues by young Bonnie Raitt from 1970, Odetta's passionate 1977 reading of her self-penned "Hit or Miss," the Ricky Skaggs band tearing through a fiery instrumental in 1996, Richard Thompson's emotional 1996 solo performance of "Bee's Wing," Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen harmonizing exquisitely in 1996, and a stunning 1962 banjo display from Bill Keith. Younger artists like bluegrassers Nickel Creek, biting songwriter Mary Gauthier, and rousing Eastern European dance band Harmonia seem ready to carry the torch. --Marc Greilsamer