AMG Review of Folk Ballads of Ronnie Hawkins

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

Originally issued on Roulette, this album was a kind of cash-in on the folk boom spawned the year before by Johnny Horton with his recording of "The Battle of New Orleans." The folk material here, includes a wailing version of "Motherless Child" and a subdued version of "The Cherry Song" (as "I Gave My Love a Cherry"), and works like "John Henry" and "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (done very moodily) in Hawkins' arrangements, and there's also stuff like Gershwin's "Summertime" and "Brave Man" from a Paramount movie Red Garters. Hawkins' aggressively moody vocals make all of it appealing. The backing chorus that appears on most of the songs is a bit off-putting, but overall, this is a fairly appealing record of its kind, with Hawkins in fine musical form and generally on target in his interpretive decisions. (British import)