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Pete Seeger sometimes gets all the credit, but hisbrother Mike, who died last month, was at least as instrumental in the folk-bluesrevival that inspired Bob Dylan and altered the DNA of popular culture. Mike’sgroup, The New Lost City Ramblers, differed from many of its contemporaries byneither treating the songs as antique documents under glass nor polishing themfor a pop audience. As their handsome three-disc career retrospective box setshows, the Ramblers were true to the letter and spirit of the old songs theycollected and revived, but they were unafraid to interpret them with a zestborn of love for the material and the vernacular culture from which it emerged.The accompanying booklets help put their efforts from the 1950s through the’70s in context.
