– Customer review on 31/10/2011

Anyone who might happen to read my other reviews will quickly recognize my unabashed devotion to the artistry of Jackson Browne, and it is unquestionably his mesmerizing contribution to this project that initially captured my attention. It should come as no surprise then that "You Know the Night" is, for me, the anchor of this extremely eclectic body of work. Artists as diverse as Ani DiFranco, Studs Terkel and Nellie McKay contribute to this centennial tribute to the great Woody Guthrie. The workings of WG's words and music will seem arcane and, in many instances, far removed from what you (or he!) might have thought imaginable, but in a very real sense I consider this to be the ultimate tribute. It is daunting (not to mention a little depressing) to try to picture what we might be listening to were it not for seminal artists like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Browne himself. Well, taking one step further back, it's impossible to picture how they might have evolved were it not for Woody and so many of his contemporaries. I guess what I'm saying is that while this recording may seem a bit spotty to some, I consider it to be a tribute in the richest and most accurate sense of the word. Art is about broadening vistas, and, for the most part, the artists represented here demonstrate the very personal and profound impact another troubador's vision has had on their own.