Never Grow Old

Anne Hills and Cindy Mangsen were stalwarts of the Chicago folk scene in the 1970s, and in 1994 they joined together with a bunch of their friends and colleagues to produce this utterly delightful album. It features contributions from old-time string band the Volo Bogtrotters, fellow Midwesterner Priscilla Herdman, the legendary John Hartford (on the cheerfully chilling “Wolves a-Howlin’”), and Laurie Lewis, among many others, and the program is bracketed by two very different versions of the title track: one featuring just Hills and Mangsen accompanied by Pete Sutherland on piano, and the other featuring John Roberts and Tony Barrand in reedy four-part harmony.