The Songs of Mark Spoelstra with Twelve-String Guitar

by Mark Spoelstra

Overview

This is rather drab white-folk blues, delivered in a far less gutsy voice than that of one of Spoelstra's friends in Greenwich Village in the early '60s, Bob Dylan. Most of the songs are traditional, some quite familiar ("Corinna Blues," "Jail House Now," "Sugar Babe"), and none are Spoelstra originals, though he does cover Woody Guthrie's "Slip Knot" and Mance Lipscomb's "Sugar Babe." Spoelstra is a capable 12-string guitarist, but the album's a timepiece of the early-'60s folk boom, when such colorless vocalists could record for fairly big labels mainly by virtue of their still-unusual repertoire and their accessible diction. This album was reissued on Verve Folkways with a different title, The Times I've Had, and different cover. ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	05/30/2012
Label:	Smithsonian Records
UPC:	0093070244429
Rank:	119655

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mark Spoelstra   Primary Artist