Lonnie Donegan - Lonesome Traveller (2005)

The idea behind this 27-song compilation seems to have been to cherry-pick Lonnie Donegan's most artistically credible performances, highlighting, in the words of the back-cover blurb, "his skills as an interpreter of traditional American roots music." So while there are a few hits here (including the title track), his big skiffle hits are mostly absent, as are his novelties like "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight)" and "My Old Man's a Dustman (Ballad of a Refuse Disposal Officer)." Instead, this favors relatively obscure tracks from LPs, EPs, and B-sides, from the mid-'50s all the way up to the mid-'60s. Donegan's style is still too derivative, and the arrangements too dated (not to say occasionally corny), for these recordings to exert as much of a hold on modern listeners as those of, say, Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, to name two of Donegan's biggest inspirations. Still, there are some surprises here for those who dismiss Donegan as a mere popularizing entertainer, if only in the versatility of the material. There are some 1960 U.S.-recorded pop/rock sides produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (who also wrote one of them, "Sorry, But I'm Gonna Have to Pass"). Some arrangements tentatively employ electric guitar and drums (such as a 1959 version of "The House of the Rising Sun"), and while these aren't exactly folk-rock, they do show that Donegan had an idea to combine folk material with electric amplification long before folk-rock became a craze in the mid-'60s. There's rather commercial sounding calypso in the covers of Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" and "I Wanna Go Home," better known to rock fans as a variation of the folk song adapted by the Beach Boys on their 1966 hit "Sloop John B." There's even a 1965 Dylan cover ("Farewell [Fare Thee Well]"), as well as the occasional track that sounds good on its own terms, like his 1963 rock-ish full-band cover of the folk favorite "500 Miles Away from Home." This stuff's been reissued so many times over that it's hard to say exactly who might be snared by this attempt to group it under a vague concept, but it's not a bad sampler of some of Donegan's better work, though it shouldn't be picked up in lieu of a greatest-hits or best-of compilation. Note, however, that this version of "Rock Island Line" is not the original mid-'50s hit, but a different 1956 recording that wasn't issued at the time.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Aunt Rhody (The Old Grey Goose) (2:25)
1.02 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - The House of the Rising Sun (3:56)
1.03 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos (4:01)
1.04 - Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber's Skiffle Group, Chris Barber, Lonnie Donegan's Skiffle Group - The Midnight Special (2:14)
1.05 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Talking Guitar Blues (US Version) (2:06)
1.06 - Lonnie Donegan - Corrine, Corrina (2:20)
1.07 - Lonnie Donegan - Junko Partner (2:16)
1.08 - Lonnie Donegan - Sorry But I'm Gonna Have to Pass (2:24)
1.09 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Love Is Strange (2:54)
1.10 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Wabash Cannonball (1:57)
1.11 - Lonnie Donegan, The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group - Stewball (2:10)
1.12 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Group - 500 Miles Away from Home (2:45)
1.13 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Puttin' On the Style (Live) (3:35)
1.14 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Wreck of the Old '97 (2:28)
1.15 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Group - Ramblin' 'Round (3:28)
1.16 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Lonesome Traveller (2:50)
1.17 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Times Are Getting Hard, Boys (Stereo) (2:44)
1.18 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Nobody Loves Like an Irishman (2:43)
1.19 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Sally Don't You Grieve (2:12)
1.20 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Group - Michael Row the Boat Ashore (2:28)
1.21 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Rock O' My Soul (2:29)
1.22 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Nobody's Child (4:56)
1.23 - Lonnie Donegan, Wally Stott Orchestra - I Wanna Go Home (The Wreck of the John B) (2:37)
1.24 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Have a Drink On Me (2:50)
1.25 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Hard Travellin' (Version 1) (2:24)
1.26 - Lonnie Donegan, Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - My Dixie Darling (3:03)
1.27 - Lonnie Donegan - Farewell (Fare Thee Well) (3:20)
1.28 - Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Line (Mono Version) (3:23)