Eric Von Schmidt "The Folk Blues Of..."; Geoff Muldaur; Original Prestige RVG LP

$

37

Eric Von Schmidt / "The Folk Blues Of Eric Von Schmidt" / Prestige-Folklore Records FL 14005 / Mono LP / RVG (Rudy Van Gelder) initials stamp on run-out groove / Original Pressing

Vinyl Grade:  Audibly Checked:  VG++

Album Cover Grade:  VG++

Musicians:

(with Geoff Muldaur, guitar
Robert L. Jones, guitar & vocal
Fritz Richmond, washtub bass)

Tracklist:

- Crow Jane
- Gulf Coast Blues
- Brave Wolfe
- Junco Partner
- De Kalb Blues
- Lolita

- Champagne Don't Hurt Me, Baby
- Buffalo Skinners
- Jack O'Diamonds
- He Was A Friend Of Mine
- Cocoa Beach Blues
- Down On Me
- Titanic

Review:

"Not to take anything away from Bob Dylan, but people sometimes forget that his songs and performing style didn't just come out of thin air. Like any significant artist, he had many influences, with his efforts being a synthesis of other musicians' works combined with his own unique vision. One of the erstwhile Robert Zimmerman's most important mentors was Eric Von Schmidt, who obviously made quite an impression on the young Minnesotan prior to his professional breakthrough. So much so that Dylan offered tribute to him by dropping his name during the introduction to "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" on his eponymous Columbia debut as well as including a copy of this album, The Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt, among the odds and ends on display in the cover photograph for the landmark Bringing It All Back Home LP.

Such accolades are completely appropriate considering Von Schmidt's importance to the postwar American folk revival. Indeed, his involvement in the movement goes back to at least the 1950s, which makes him an important transitional figure who acted as a bridge between the old guard from the 1930s and 1940s like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and the Young Turks from early 1960s Greenwich Village. The remarkable thing about this important cross-pollinator was that he was seemingly everywhere in the scene but left behind a relatively scant recorded legacy for someone who cast such a long shadow. Much of this is attributable to the fact that Von Schmidt followed in the footsteps of his father Harold, a prolific illustrator for Saturday Evening Post magazine, as a successful artist, which meant that he could pursue his musical interests in a largely recreational fashion. I think that's a big part of the reason why I like this record so much. Unlike so many other white blues efforts, Von Schmidt does not fall into the pitfall of trying to sound overly earnest or authentic and making a pretentious ass of himself in the process. Instead, the listener can plainly hear that the tracks comprising his first LP were songs that he simply enjoyed playing for the sake of playing, which can often result in extraordinary things happening in the recording studio."