Live at Sir George Williams University is a live album by Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

, released in 1997. This recording was done live at a festival appearance during Expo '67 in 1967, at Sir George Williams University, in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, critic Lindsay Planer wrote of the album "Van Ronk's amenable nature is also evident in his interaction with the audience as he tells short jokes between numbers — especially notable is his "W.C. Fields Routine," proving yet again that this is no standard folky. Dave Van Ronk comes from a dying breed of entertainers who were adept at weaving a continuity into whatever they doing... Much of this set mirrors both the music he chose for inclusion on his long-players as well as tunes he would continue to perform throughout the remainder of his career. Van Ronk steers the show through a seemingly infinite maze of musical genres and influences."

Track listing

1. "Gambler's Blues
   St. James Infirmary Blues
   "St. James Infirmary Blues" is based on an 18th century traditional English folk song of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose . Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.-Authorship and history:"St...
   
   " (Traditional) – 4:41
2. "That Will Never Happen No More" (Blind Blake
   Blind Blake
   "Blind" Blake was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist.-Biography:...
   
   ) – 4:17
3. "The Old Man" (Bob Dylan
   Bob Dylan
   Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
   
   ) – 2:05
4. "St. Louis Tickle" (Barney, Seymour) – 3:06
5. "Frankie and Albert" (Traditional) – 4:07
6. "Down and Out" (Traditional) – 2:39
7. "W.C. Fields Routine" (Traditional) – :48
8. "Mack the Knife
   Mack the Knife
   "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
   
   " (Marc Blitzstein
   Marc Blitzstein
   Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...
   
   , Bertolt Brecht
   Bertolt Brecht
   Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
   
   , Kurt Weill
   Kurt Weill
   Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
   
   ) – 3:26
9. "Song of the Wandering Angus" (Judy Collins
   Judy Collins
   Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
   
   , William Butler Yeats
   William Butler Yeats
   William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
   
   ) – 4:48
10. "Mean World Blues" (Miller) – 2:57
11. "Keep It Clean" (Charley Jordan
    Charley Jordan
    Charley Jordan was a St. Louis blues singer, songwriter and guitarist, as well as a talent scout, originally from Mabelvale, Arkansas...
    
    ) – 2:38
12. "Statesboro Blues
    Statesboro Blues
    "Statesboro Blues" is a blues song in the key of D written by Blind Willie McTell; the title refers to the town of Statesboro, Georgia. Covered by many artists, the version by The Allman Brothers Band is especially notable and was ranked #9 by Rolling Stone in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar...
    
    " (McTell
    Blind Willie McTell
    Blind Willie McTell , was an influential Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues, although, unlike his contemporaries, he used exclusively a twelve-string guitar...
    
    ) – 2:06
13. "Cocaine" (Davis) – 4:10

Production notes

• Michael Nerenberg – engineer, liner notes, reissue producer, photography
• Jim West – executive producer