The 22-track compilation FOLK MUSIC OF THE WORLD is as fine an introduction to Pete Seeger's music as you're likely to find. Despite his well-earned reputation as a social activist, Pete Seeger is first and foremost a musicologist and folk historian, and these tracks focus almost entirely on this side of his work. For nearly an hour, you hear one folk classic after another, from gospel standards like "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" and "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" to work songs such as "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "The Greenland Fisheries" to ballads like "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair," each performed by Seeger, most often alone and accompanying himself on banjo or guitar, with easy grace, sly humor, and limitless passion. The relative lack of protest songs aside, this collection is flawless.
