Back in the 1970s, when everyone was plugging in and doing either rock or jazz fusion, there was a small coterie of artists that stuck hard and fast to the acoustic guitar. Gents like Stefan Grossman, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, John Fahey and Artie Traum (are you taking notes?) kept Americans tapped into her blues and folk roots with some marvelous collection of pastoral and rural albums. One of the best of the lot was (and is) Duck Baker. This album has him on guitar and occasional laconic vocals, usually in a solo setting, and contains material from 1973 in Richmond VA and 7 more from 1977-79 recorded in England.
The music is uniformly excellent, with Baker’s fingers working Roaring Twenties magic on “Maple Leaf Rag” and “Charleston” while the fingers bend and snap like Reese Witherspoon on “Homage to Leadbelly.” His strings get banjo-like on “Les Blues Du Richmond” and they chime on “Little Boy.” There’s a ton of fun on pieces like the reeling “The Humors of Whisky” and the old world “Swedish Jig” with some gypsy atmosphere added by Mike Piggot’s violin and Joe Spibey’s bass on “That Rhythm Man.” I was really into this stuff back in the day; I forgot how great it was. If you’re not familiar with the genre, get ready for a treat!