Listening to this album is tantamount to pulling back the drapery and looking through a window into nineteenth-century middle-class America. Compiled and performed by mezzo-soprano Dorothy Mesney with music from accomplished pianist Mynon McPherson, the album captures the feeling with which the songs were originally performed around the parlour piano or in the music hall—from the gentle humor of “The Old Bachelor” to the touching beauty of “The Ship on Fire.”

Each track has been chosen with loving interest; such is Mesney’s fascination with music of this era. Mesney was a founder of The American Experience, a group dedicated to performing American music of all periods. Her first recording for Folkways, Patchwork and Powderhorn: Songs and Ballads of the American Revolutionary Era (FW05278), is available here.