fills the first half of his 1960 studio album with three medleys, playing and singing a chorus or so of 17 different songs in 15 minutes, as if just getting down the basics of the tunes to remember them and perhaps perform them more fully later. Toward the end of this set, he gets a bit more serious and organized, beginning with an original composition a philosophical ballad with the chorus (gently sung), "When will you ever learn?" What he wants his listeners to learn, it becomes apparent, is to avoid war, particularly nuclear war, as he follows with a Japanese poem to that effect before ending the medley section of the album with a poem by early 20th century labor organizer and songwriter . begins the album's second half with another lovely original, which expresses his desire to bind the world together. A trio of songs about the need for peace follows, all of them written by his half-sister and/or her husband, . The most affecting of these is which finds putting down his banjo temporarily and playing a melody on the flute. Another call to brotherhood ( ) is followed by a marching song from the Montgomery bus boycott ( ), and the album concludes with the elegiac (aka ). Although the collection is something of a miscellany, it contains some excellent songs, typically mixing his love for old folk tunes with his commitment to progressive political causes such as nuclear disarmament and Civil Rights. ~ William Ruhlmann