Manhattan Folk Story: Dave Van Ronk

Authors: Dave Van Ronk , Elijah Wald , Claire Debru

He left his name to a Manhattan street; he was the guru of guitarists of his generation; he recorded around thirty albums between 1958 and 2002... and you don't know him. Dave Van Ronk, the "white singer with a black voice", nevertheless embodied for several decades the most demanding American folk in the eyes of the best, starting with Bob Dylan, who took a few lessons from him and "borrowed" the most famous version of "The House of the Rising Sun". This book is an event: written by a musician as modest as he is loudmouth, it is the story of New York folk from the 1950s to the 1970s. Unlike the doctored autobiography of a bitter star, it traces with mischievousness and frankness the journey of a jazz lover who went through the blues before becoming the virtuoso of a music that is essentially collective (between "folks", we propose a phrase and a melody that everyone repeats and modifies). From adolescence, Van Ronk adopted the atmosphere of bohemian life that reigned in Greenwich, a neighborhood where intellectuals, artists, various activists and leftists took refuge. He started using marijuana, lived off odds and ends, fought against the Beatniks, sent Albert Grossman packing, recorded disastrous first albums, haunted the scene of the Gaslight Café and met the big names of blues and folk that he would largely contribute to shaping. With the storytelling skill that has made him legendary, he reveals the chaotic beginnings of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Gary Davis, Simon and Garfunkel, Mississippi John Hurt... and so many others. A generous friend or an insufferable purist, he is constantly robbed and never complains; even when he remains in a rut, dependent on petty contracts. A loser? Above the fray, Van Ronk is above all incorruptible. In any case, it is in this spirit that Joel and Ethan Coen conceived the main character of their film, Inside Llewyn Davis, whose odyssey is inspired by that of Dave Van Ronk.

ISBN: 9782221138731