A crystalline-clear voice and a tireless preservation of music are two of the contibutions to music that is most respected for, and both shine on the / release . Mostly , with a few songs accompanied by dulcimer, these children's are alternately warm and chilling, achingly beautiful and as stark as the bones of the balladeers who wrote the songs hundreds of years ago. The bright melody of could be chanted as a playground rhyme or sung as a funeral , and the brutal love triangle in resolves with a higher body count than a film, but with the heartbreaking romance of a Merchant Ivory production. The extensive liner notes stray toward the academic, but certainly drive home the point that these songs are older than the original 1961 release date, older than recorded music, and the sentiments found in all of the songs date back to the dawn of language and beyond. Despite all of the long-carved gravestones and lovelorn bloodshed, these recordings still manage to sound warm and familiar as a mother's lullaby, and pull off the remarkable feat of being a historically important document and wonderful to listen to. ~ Zac Johnson