The Street Was Always There
Having continued to turn out a body of consistently brilliant--if recently overlooked--original work since the 1960s, Andersen here decides to cover tunes from that fertile era. The period saw a spate of songs written to effect social change, likeBuffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier,"Phil Ochs's "I Ain't Marching Anymore," and, more elliptically,Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." Other artists covered, likeTim Hardin,Paul Siebel, andFred Neil, dealt with more personal realms; radio play and "hits" were not an issue. These still relevant tunes prove that Andersen and his cohorts set a songwriting standard that has yet to be beaten--and is rarely equaled.--Michael Ross