With a Gathering of Friends

As Joe Hickerson wrote in 1970, "in spite of the star-performance syndrome of the folksong boom of the 1960s, and the penchant for standup hymn, sea, and pub singing in the ongoing folksong revival of the 70s, my preference continues to be for situations involving sit-down singing in groups of people". Though Hickerson leads the record, Joe Hickerson with a Gathering of Friends is precisely that - a collection of folk songs performed communally. Alongside his career as a musician, Joe Hickerson was the director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and an early proponent of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington.