Based in Camden, Maine, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Gordon Bok had already begun to turn heads in the New England folk music scene of the early 1970s (and released five solo albums) by the time he got together with singer Ann Mayo Muir and singer/guitarist Ed Trickett to make this magnificent album of original and traditional songs in 1975. They take turns singing lead and they harmonize marvelously on songs like the 19th-century disaster ballad “Threescore and Ten” and the Australian protest song “The Cocky at Bungaree,” and on a gorgeous rendition of a dance tune from Peru. But the title track, a Bok original, is the album’s sweet and touching centerpiece. Turning Toward the Morning is a masterpiece of American folk performance.

– Rick Anderson