Complete General Recordings
They were only together for about a year in the early '40s, but the Almanac Singers' repertoire, and individual members, would go on to much later greatness in the decades that followed. Comprised of folk legends Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Pete Hawes, and Millard Lampell, the group performed mostly at left-wing political conventions and labor rallies with a set list that mixed the traditional with the political. The songs contained onComplete General Recordingsare some of their finest moments, and many of the tunes would see later life covered by the Weavers (Seeger and Hays's future band) and even--in the case of "House of the Rising Sun"--the Animals. Produced by another music legend, Alan Lomax,Their Complete General Recordingsis an essential document of folk music's history and a great chance to these classic numbers in a raw, unadulterated form. The Almanac Singers may not have sold as many records as their contemporaries (blame that on the unpopular pacifism they preached as the United States entered World War II), but their versions of these tunes are simply timeless.--Jason Verlinde