Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes

The full title of this Pete Seeger/Frank Hamilton duo album is Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes for Harmonica, Flute, Recorder, Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo, 12-String Guitar, and Voices, an important point since the album credits never indicate who's playing what. It appears that Seeger and Hamilton each picked up one or the other of the indicated instruments for the tunes selected for this picking session and went to town. That the word "Voices" appears last is significant in that this is largely an instrumental album. The two performers only begin singing toward the end, when they apply their voices to "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" and their version of Jimmie Driftwood's update of the old Andrew Jackson campaign song "The Battle of New Orleans" (recently a chart-topping hit for Johnny Horton). Otherwise, they make their way through loosely arranged versions of old folk, country, blues, ragtime, and international songs in what is a friendly, casual musical travelogue. This is not a major album for the catalogs of either performer, but it is a light, enjoyable effort.