Folksinger's Choice was a radio show on New York FM station WBAI hosted by Elektra recording artist Cynthia Gooding. This CD issues the radio performance featuring Bob Dylan from March 11th 1962 and presents Bob singing live in the studio with Cynthia interviewing him between tracks. The singing tracks and interview tracks are all numbered so the CD actually contains 21 tracks, 10 more than listed on the cover - making it slightly tricky to play a specific music track. The CD runs for just under an hour at 57:30.



The audio quality is pretty good, considering the age of the material, and is reasonably produced by Leftfield Media with an eight page booklet giving recording details and a full write-up for each track. I never heard the bootleg versions of this material so I cannot directly compare the audio quality, but this new release sounds like it is taken from a studio source tape rather than an off-air recording.



As an historic document this set stands up really well and features the twenty year old Bob just before the release of his first album. The material ranges easily from folk to blues to country with three Dylan originals to show the promise of the career to come. This CD is one all Bob's fans will enjoy and the music - if not the interviews - stand up to repeated playing. Bob's fans are in for an even bigger treat later in the year when Columbia issue the artist's first eight albums as a limited edition MONO box set. Many of the mono mixes are far superior to the stereo versions as owners of the original vinyl LP versions may well remember. Until then this Folksinger's Choice CD will have to keep Bob's fans happy!