In the traditional string band style, longtime Folkways recording artists The New Lost City Ramblers offer up 18 topical songs written by country singers during the dark days of the Great Depression. Many of the songs are from commercial recordings, mostly from the South, and field recordings made during the Farm Resettlement Program; they illustrate the economic and social depression that affected this area, often long after prosperity began to return to American's urban centers. Band members Tom Paley, John Cohen, and Mike Seeger contributed to the liner notes, which contain background information on the Great Depression as well as song lyrics.