In about 2000 I was taken to a concert at an outdoor venue in Cleveland called Cain Park. The park itself is rather small - maybe ten city blocks or so across. But within the confines of the trees, subtle hills and grass sits an amphitheatre. Notable folks from all genres of music have performed there - Bela Fleck to Rick Springfield. It can't be said that the place always attracts the biggest names - but it's a unique space in a city lacking in places to see music.

The show that I attended was a triple headlined bill with Odetta, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Josh White Junior. The elder two performers obviously each had long and storied careers. Their names are synonymous with folk, while the latter gentleman could be thought of as simply continuing on where his father left off.

I recall those performances pretty vividly - although I would see both Odetta and Ramblin' Jack on separate occasions a few years on. But what I think of when recalling White's set is the fact that he did "One Meatball" and a variety of tunes associated with his father's song book. Being the youngest performer should probably have enabled White to blow away those two other folks, but it wasn't the case. And his performance was pretty close to lack luster.

Only because of this performance have I worked to avoid the work of Josh White Senior. And in delving deeper and deeper into folk and blues of the first half of the 20^th century, it's become more and more difficult to avoid him. At a record sale this past weekend in a south Bay suburb, I finally broke down and snagged a recording from the elder White. It was a dollar, so even if it ended up stinking, I wouldn't have been too upset.

Luckily, the album - a compilation from a Folkways knock off called the Archive of Folk Music - has its merits. Most surprisingly, though, the album features White in a variety of settings, but not ever alone with just his guitar.

In reading anything about White, his guitar acumen is generally mentioned, so to initially hear the singer and guitarist accompanied by an organ and a diminished drum set on the all too cheesy "Bon Bon" was surprising, to say  the least. Unfortunately, the companion to this song - "Green Corn" - opens the second side and sounds as if it's some middle ground between "Wabash Canonball" and White's "One Meatball." There's a perverse happiness being perpetuated through these songs, which is pretty startling considering the political associations that White had.

Of course, this collection is made up of sing-a-longs and spirituals, but the pedestrian fare interspersed between tracks about a higher power are disconcerting. The collection, though, serves to explicate the shift that performers were necessitated to undergo. As a result of black folks moving out of the Jim Crow South and into Northern population centers, sounds began changing. And this spate of tracks from White, while maintaining some of that folksy southern feel, sounds like a big city record.