" ... the solo album Luther Dickinson has been hinting at for half a decade ... Though he wrote or co-wrote all 21 songs here, they have been inspired by tunes he learned and people and traditions he learned from. The production is intimate, stripped down. Voices and guitars are prominent, but drums, blues fife, and an upright piano and organ are heard here and there. All the songs were recorded live in the studio at various times, often in a single take ... Blues & Ballads: A Folksinger's Songbook, Vols. 1-2 is a musical autobiography. For Dickinson, blues and folk music are living traditions that continue to inform his geography, and his life and work within it. It's fortunate that he considered these songbooks worth sharing".