Jean Ritchie (1) (1922–2015)

I love this book! I re-read it every few years. It's a memoir by singer Jean Ritchie, about growing up in the Cumberland mountains of Kentucky. Jean was born in 1922, the youngest of 13 children, born in a house that her father built by hand. It's part Whole Earth Catalog, part Little House in the Big Woods, and it has the added bonus of containing many traditional songs that came down through her family. (Both of her parents were sought out by "song collectors" from Britain in the twenties show more and thirties.) My edition has illustrations by a young Maurice Sendak. I also had a little thrill when I opened it this time, to notice that I had gotten it autographed when Jean played a concert here ten or so years ago. (I'd forgotten that!) This is just a really special book, well worth reading if you care for folk music and/or memoirs. Have I mentioned that I love this book?

I also hadn't known before that Jean was born the same year as my mother. That makes her nearly 90, which means -- holy cow! -- my mother would also be nearly 90 were she still alive. Jean Ritchie is as much of an icon as Pete Seeger. We should revere these people as national treasures. show less

Introductions by Jean Ritchie and Pete Seeger. Arrangements by Alfred D'Auberge. 57 songs by 57 artists, a good representative of the sort of folks that performed at the festivals (but no Dylan, Baez, or PP&M). Photos by David Gahr, many of them not included in The Face of Folk Music. Inkwash drawings of most of the musicians by Ernest Kurt Barth. Gives chords but not graphs.