Oklahoma-born
James Talley
gives stirring accounts of most of the 21
Woody Guthrie
songs on this 70-minute CD.
Richard Hardy
's mandolin adds considerable color to the timbre of these well-arranged recordings, which are dominated by
Talley
's suitably emotive and pleasing voice.
evidently identifies deeply with much of this repertory and invests a lot of himself in each piece, and the backup singing melds nicely with his lead vocals. The recording quality is exceptionally good, bringing out the delicate timbre of the playing, and only the availability of
Guthrie
's versions (and those by contemporaries such as
Pete Seeger
) makes this a less-than-obvious choice, though it is an excellent assembly of many of the composer's most famous songs (with
"Goodnight Irene"
used as the music for the poem "Red Wing," and the
Jack Guthrie
co-authored
"Oklahoma Hills"
also present). ~ Bruce Eder