"THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN ROCK JOURNALISM": COMPLETE 30-VOLUME RUN OF THE PATHFINDING FOLK FANZINE THE LITTLE SANDY REVIEW (1959-65), REPLETE WITH REVIEWS OF NEW ALBUMS BY DYLAN, GUTHRIE, SEEGER, GIBSON, WATERS, LOMAX, HOPKINS, BAEZ, HOOKER AND MANY, MANY MORE—FROM THE COLLECTION OF A PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTOR

NELSON, Paul; PANKAKE, Jon, editors. The Little Sandy Review. Minneapolis: Little Sandy Review, 1959-65. Thirty volumes. 12mo, staple-bound, original printed paper wrappers. Housed in custom chemise and clamshell box.

First editions of the complete 30-volume run of the groundbreaking folk music fanzine The Little Sandy Review. From the collection of contributing writer Tony Glover, who was also a harmonica player and a close friend of Bob Dylan from their days in Dinkytown on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

"The Little Sandy Review was a folk music fanzine published by Paul Nelson and Jon Pankake in Minneapolis, MN. Launched in 1959, the the zine was dedicated to reviewing folk music legends such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as well as then newcomers like Bob Dylan, The New Lost City Ramblers, and Koerner, Ray, and Glover. Thirty issues of the zine were published in total before publication ceased in 1965" (University of Minnesota, Special Collections). In the inaugural issue editors Nelson and Pankake write: "We are two people who love folk music very much and want to do all we can to help the good in it grow and the bad in it perish. After reading this issue, it should be very apparent to anyone who we think is good and who we think is bad and why… We also want to print a complete coverage of all folk records released that would be of interest to the American folk-record buyer." And so they did for six years, reviewing the likes of Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Bob Gibson, Jean Ritchie, Muddy Waters, New Lost City Ramblers, Odetta, Blind Willie McTell, Maybelle Carter, Bonnie Dobson, Alan Lomax, Woodie Guthrie, Marjorie Guthrie, Ed McCurdy, Lightning Hopkins, Joan Baez, Greenbriar Boys, the Soho Skiffle Group, the Dillards, Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, "Spider" John Koener, Leadbelly, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Carolyn Hester, the Clancy Brothers, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and even Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. And native Minnesotan, friend of Glover, Nelson, and Pankake, Bob Dylan whose debut album gets a seven-page review in Issue 22—the longest review by far in the entire run of LSR. Dylan's second album, Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, gets a five-page review in Issue 27, where it is panned. Other contributors include Pete Seeger, Malvina Reynolds, Woodie Guthrie, and Edith Fowke, John Cohen, Cynthia Gooding, Peggy Seeger, Nat Hentoff, Moses Asch (Folkways Records), Manny Solomon (Vanguard Records), and John Shelton (New York Times). "Over time, the value of these reviews grows more apparent as the recordings themselves—re-packaged and re-issued multiple times by now—gain increasing stature as landmarks in the emerging consensus on a formal American roots canon. For all of this to happen, though, the editors of The Little Sandy Review first had to invent, essentially from scratch, the foundations of modern rock journalism" (David Lightbourne, from newvulgate.blogspot.com). This complete run of The Little Sandy Review is from Dave (aka Tony) Glover's collection; he was a staff member and regular contributor.

Near-fine condition. Very scarce complete and highly desirable.