Van Ronk on the album

"The six Dusters cuts on this disc make me think that we were probably too eclectic for the market we were courting, and that a thinking man's rock and roll is a bit like a white blackbird. Even so, I think they represent one of the high points of my recording career. They are: "Alley Oop" - by the Hollywood Argyles out of W. C. Fields, through Frank Zappa. "Chelsea Morning" - Joni Mitchell. I may have been the first New Yorker to fall in love with her. She was still living in Detroit when we met. "Clouds" - Joni didn't like my tampering with her title for this one. She insisted (justifiably) that the original title (Both Sides Now) be included. Still, though, she did entitle her next album "Clouds." :Swing on a Star" -I learned from Bing Crosby in Going My Way, but it never occurred to me to perform it until I saw Luke Faust do his Buster Keatonish reading. "Dink's Song" - probably the best piece of singing as such I've ever done on record. I had a nasty flu when we cut this one, and my voice had gone pre-laryngitic. This had the effect of opening up an octave valve I didn't even know I had. The next day I couldn't talk, let alone sing. "Romping Through the Swamp" - by Peter Stampfel. Peter once told me that my version of this had a bit more dignity than his, and, God help us, I think he's right." -- Chestomathy liner notes

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, music critic Richard Meyer wrote that "Dave Van Ronk always brings his enthusiastic roar to his material and makes it his own. His rendition of "Swing on a Star" is but one example. The Hudson Dusters seem to be a combination electric jugband, folk orchestra and bubblegum band, as on "Mr. Middle." A strange collection."

Side one

1. "Alley Oop
   Alley Oop (song)
   "Alley Oop" is a song written by Dallas Frazier. The song, heavily inspired by the V. T. Hamlin-created comic strip of the same name, was first recorded by Frazier as a country tune in 1957.-The Hollywood Argyles:...
   
   " (Frazier) – 3:38
2. "Head Inspector" (Van Ronk) – 2:06
3. "Swing on a Star
   Swinging on a Star
   "Swinging on a Star" is an American pop standard with music composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year, and has been recorded by numerous artists since...
   
   " (Burke
   Johnny Burke (lyricist)
   Johnny Burke was a lyricist, widely regarded as one of the finest writers of popular songs in America between the 1920s and 1950s.-Biography:...
   
   -Van Heusen) – 2:37
4. "Mr. Middle" (Bogardus-Woods) – 3:02
5. "Chelsea Morning
   Chelsea Morning
   "Chelsea Morning" is a song written by Joni Mitchell and introduced on the singer's 1969 album Clouds..The song was inspired by Mitchell's room in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The inspiration for the first verse comes partly from the distinct décor of her apartment...
   
   " (Joni Mitchell
   Joni Mitchell
   Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
   
   ) – 2:33
6. "Clouds (From Both Sides Now)
   Both Sides Now (song)
   "Both Sides, Now" is a single by Joni Mitchell. Her recording first appeared on the album Clouds, released in 1969. She re-recorded the song in a jazz style for the album of the same name, released in 2000....
   
   " (Joni Mitchell) – 4:37

Side two

1. "Keep Off the Grass" (Dave Woods, Doris Woods) – 2:08
2. "Dink's Song
   Dink's Song
   "Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley...
   
   " (Bess B Lomax, John A Lomax
   John Lomax
   John Avery Lomax was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist and folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk songs...
   
   ) – 3:34
3. "New Dreams" (Dave Woods, Doris Woods) – 2:22
4. "Cocaine" (Reverend Gary Davis
   Reverend Gary Davis
   Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, was an American blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica...
   
   ) – 4:58
5. "Romping Through the Swamp" (Peter Stampfel) – 1:58

Personnel

• Dave Van Ronk - guitar, vocals
• Dave Woods - guitar
• Phil Namenworth (aka Pot) - keyboards
• Ed Gregory - bass
• Rick Henderson - drums

Production notes

• Produced by Barry Kornfeld
• Production Supervisor Jerry Schoenbaum
• All songs arranged by David Woods except Head Inspector by Dave Van Ronk
• Director of Engineering: Val Valentin
• Cover Photo: Harry Schwartz
• Liner Photo: Chuck Stewart
  Chuck Stewart
  Chuck Stewart is an African American photographer best known for his cover photos on as many as 2,000 albums featuring his portraits of such jazz, Rhythm and blues, bebop and salsa performers as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis among the hundreds of...
  
  
• Cover Design: David Krieger