| Although there are other styles represented among the more than 90 tracks in this three-disc set, The Best of Hootenanny is mostly about folk music. And while folkie superstars like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and the Kingston Trio are absent, there are lots of famous names on hand (Judy Collins, Carly Simon, the New Christy Minstrels, Hoyt Axton, the Limelighters), not to mention a host of genre-defining songs ("Green, Green," "If I Had a Hammer," "Five Hundred Miles," "Michael Row the Boat Ashore"… even "Kumbayah," the summer camp moment that's become a new millennium cliché). Problem is, time has not been very kind to folk. No matter how good the performances may be, and some are excellent, this is music that is very much of its time (the early 1960s); nuance-free, with its pure and earnest tales of lusty men and their ramblin' ways, it virtually parodies itself these days--especially in the wake of A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest's spot-on film satire. Little wonder that the TV show itself was off the air by September, '64, plowed under by the Beatles and other rockers who made folk sound quaint and unfashionable (an exception here would be Ian & Sylvia Tyson's powerful and rocking "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well"). It's the offerings from other genres that still sound great. A duo called Joe & Eddie bring a febrile, foot-stomping gospel vibe to "Jerry," as do the amazing Marion Williams & Stars of Faith to "Packin' Up." The Dillards, Flatt & Scruggs (with banjo virtuoso Earl Scruggs), and Richard & Jim, another obscure duo, play some scorching bluegrass; Johnny Cash (whose two tunes include "Busted," most closely associated with Ray Charles) and the Carter Family represent traditional country music, and jazz flutist Herbie Mann's Latin-inflected "Harlem Nocturne" is a highlight. All the clips, including comedy bits by Woody Allen, Louis Nye, Bill Cosby, and John F. Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meader, were preserved on kinescope (recordings made by filming the picture from a TV monitor), so neither video nor audio is great. The set contains no bonus features. --Sam Graham More...
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