Cisco Houston was a folk singer and songwriter, brought up in California, who was a close associate of Woody Guthrie, whom he met while working as an actor in the late 1930s. They started travelling together, playing at migrant workers’ camps and promoting unionism and workers’ rights. After serving in the Merchant Marine in the Second World War, he was in the Almanac Singers in New York with Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and began recording with Guthrie and a solo artist. Over subsequent years, he performed in clubs and worked on radio and was part of the folk scene that was at the heart of the burgeoning protest movement, writing, collecting and recording songs that carried messages that championed the cause of the downtrodden classes.

This 132-track 5CD set brings together a considerable proportion of his work, comprising selected titles from his early years, along with the titles from his albums Cowboy Songs, Leadbelly: Midnight Special, Cowboy Ballads and Railroad Songs, 900 Miles and Other R. R. Songs, Hard Travelin’, More Songs By Woody Guthrie And Cisco Houston, Cisco Sings, Cisco Houston Sings Songs Of The Open Road, Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie and I Ain't Got No Home, his last before he died from cancer in 1961 aged 42. Including collaborations with Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry, it’s a comprehensive overview of his work and a substantial showcase for his distinctive talents as an artist who was a genuine folk troubadour.

Diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, Houston continued performing until no longer able and died 29 April 1961. His passing was mourned by a growing folk music community that included  Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, and Phil Ochs.

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