The Mayor of MacDougal Street, Dave Van Ronk, with Elijah Wald
The Mayor of MacDougal Street, Dave Van Ronk, with Elijah Wald
1 Rating(s)
List: $20.95 | Sale: $14.66
Club: $10.47

The Mayor of MacDougal Street
A Memoir

Author: Dave Van Ronk, with Elijah Wald

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Unabridged: 10 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/12/2012

Synopsis

Now the inspiration for a major motion picture written and directed by the Coen brothers Dave Van Ronk was one of the founding figures of the 1960s folk revival, but he was far more than that. A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a fine songwriter and arranger, a powerful singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of the 60s, he was also a marvelous storyteller, a peerless musical historian, and one of the most quotable figures on the Village scene.The Mayor of MacDougal Streetis a firsthand account by a major player in the social and musical history of the 50s and 60s. It features encounters with young stars-to-be like Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, and Joni Mitchell, as well as older luminaries like the Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Odetta. Colorful, hilarious, and engaging,The Mayor of MacDougal Streetis a feast for anyone interested in the music, politics, and spirit of a revolutionary period in American culture.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on June 10, 2022

The Coen brothers stole his songs for Llewyn Davis, but Dave Van Ronk is more than that twerpy little fictional distortion. No other single performer embodies the spirit of the mid-sixties folk revival as perfectly as Van Ronk: its generosity, its respect for tradition, its openness to change. Dave......more

Goodreads review by Tim on October 26, 2022

I listened to the audiobook as read by Sean Runnette. It was marvelous! I'll do a writeup after I've received and digested my printed copy of the book.......more

Goodreads review by Paul on February 24, 2014

To use Dave Van Ronk’s own classification system, Dave Van Ronk was somewhere near the top of the second division of American urban folkies, I never bothered to listen to him at all. But if you’re at all interested in the FOLK thing he’s always on the radar, always. So this book looked like it would......more

Goodreads review by Henry on July 26, 2021

While we can be happy to have this book at all, it's a shame Van Ronk didn't live to see it through to completion. The loss is softened by two factors: the devotion of co-author Elijah Wald to the task of finishing it, and the fact that Van Ronk was a world-class raconteur, and many of his finely-ho......more

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