"Released to coincide with the loosely Van Ronk-based Coen Brothers movie "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Down In Washington Square" is a 54-track, three-disc set which includes sixteen previously unreleased recordings, and spans Van Ronk's entire recording career, from 1959 to 2001 ... Generally categorised as a "folk singer", all aspects of Van Ronk's vast repertoire of early American music are revealed here. There's his beloved early jazz (songs by Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Jelly Roll Morton), blues (including his guitar antecedents Mississippi John Hurt and Rev Gary Davis), jug band, spirituals, sea shanties (...) and more. He was, in short, a one-man manifestation of Harry Smith's "Anthology" ... To listen to the live recordings on "Down In Washington Square" is to be transported to a time and place located somewhere between MacDougal and Mercier during a period of extraordinary activity. While Dylan (along with Ochs, Paxton, and the rest) were "Freewheelin'", Van Ronkwasthe hub at the rapidly-spinning centre of it all and the direct bridge between the old-time songsters and the new singer-songwriters".
