Spanning the years 1971 to 1985, More Rags, Ballads, and Blues serves as a crucial companion to Allen Ginsberg’s original First Blues album, opening new windows onto his musical poetry project. Compiled from the archives, this selection includes not only outtakes from Ginsberg’s legendary sessions but also live recordings and rehearsal material, some featuring illustrious collaborators who helped bring his words to musical life. The presence of Bob Dylan and Arthur Russell adds historical depth and creative tension, reinforcing the album’s place at the crossroads of American folk revival and avant-garde experimentation.​

Across the collection, Ginsberg’s vocals shift fluidly between spoken word recitation, melodic singing, and blues intonation. Ragtime themes, traditional ballad forms, and offbeat harmonium accompaniments are all explored in sequences that feel less rehearsed and more like creative gatherings among friends. Tracks such as “Nurses Song,” “Do the Meditation Rock,” “NY Blues,” and “Lay Down Yr Mountain” exemplify the playful interplay of lyric and loose acoustic arrangement. The performances are striking for their informal immediacy, with Ginsberg’s voice merging with tape hiss, guitar strums, and laughter—echoes of recording sessions unburdened by commercial constraint.​

Although anchored in folk and blues traditions, the album’s experimental spirit is unmistakable. Ginsberg uses these sessions to meditate on contemporary themes—politics, spirituality, sexuality—with a directness that retains its potency decades later. The combination of raw, unpolished audio and rare performances imbues the release with a sense of discovery, providing listeners with a candid portrait of the poet engaging with songcraft as a laboratory for words and vocal technique. Fragments of rehearsal banter and alternate takes enrich the listening experience with historical texture, marking the sessions as communal events rather than polished studio creations.​

Released by Death Is Not The End, More Rags, Ballads, and Blues 1971-1985 is both archive and celebration—a glimpse into the process behind one of modern literature’s most famous voices as he explores the democratizing, improvisational nature of American popular song. It situates Ginsberg not only as poet but as an intuitive musical collaborator, eager to dissolve boundaries between genres and practices—offering future generations entry into the improvisational intimacy that defined his musical experiments.