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Burl Ives was a renowned diligent collector of folk songs. Criss-crossing America during the 1930s and 1940s, he was a travelling contemporary of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. In fact, Big Rock Candy Mountain was a song Burl heard the hobos singing while on the road during the Great Depression. Across the airwaves and on record, Burl Ives readily demonstrated his comprehensive knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, fine but forgotten folk songs. And it was largely due to him that such traditional songs as Delia, On Top Of Old Smoky and John Henry were passed on down to the next generation of folk singers. Burl also helped popularise such classic cowboy ballads as Riders In The Sky and Billy The Kid. Burl officially retired in 1989 and died in 1995. But this collection of eighteen songs is a timely reminder of the wide-ranging talent of the renowned troubadour, Burl Ives