Irwin Silber, editor of Sing Out! magazine, assembled this various-artists album out of recordings of two hootenanny concerts held in 1954, his apparent intention being to emphasize the diversity in styles of music that can fit under the rubric of "folk music" and be performed by different sorts of singers and instrumentalists. Cowboy songs, folk-blues songs, slave songs, country songs, songs in French, Yiddish, and Chinese are all included. The performers range from clear-voiced recitalists to expressive blues singers. Composer
Earl Robinson plays and sings a classically influenced dance song.
The Jewish Young Folksingers, a chorus, sing a spiritual. Jackie Berman contributes a children's song about peace and violence. Les Pine delivers a standup comedy act in verse. At the start, at the end, and several times in between, Folkways flagship artist
Pete Seeger steps in to sing one of his favorites or lead the audience in singing a standard. He closes the proceedings with "America the Beautiful," which, characteristically, he contextualizes with his opposition to
McCarthyism. Like an audio version of an issue of Sing Out!, the album explores the many kinds of folk music and the many sorts of people who perform it.