Jean Ritchie is a national treasure, one of America's finest and best known traditional singers. The ballads on this recordings are outstanding Appalachian version of the "Child ballads" English and Scottish narrative songs collected and published by scholar Francis James Child in the late 19th century. This reissue of her landmark Folkways recordings of British Traditional Ballads in Appalachia brings her clear, pure voice and timeless songs to new generations of listeners.