What would Dave Van Ronk think? Thanks to the Coen Brothers and their new film, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the ‘The Mayor of Macdougal Street’ is getting more press now than at any time during his life.
Today there’s a major feature about Van Ronk in the New York Times that gives him his due, and talks about all the reissues and other Van Ronk recordings now being released including a three-disc set from Smithsonian Folkways.
From the New York Times article:
“Dave Van Ronk is not an obscure figure,” Ethan Coen said when asked about the origins of the film. “He’s the biggest figure on an obscure scene, playing a kind of niche music that we knew and liked. We gravitated to his book,” because “it is a great, and very funny, document of its time. His acid voice is part of what draws you into the book, which is the best thing I know of in giving a sense of what it was like to be a working musician at that time.”
Read more here.
Check out a few of Dave Van Ronk’s recordiings:
Free download of “Mean Old Frisco.”
And stream and/or download “Gaslight Rag” from a 1974 recording at the Cafe Lena.
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