Tom Chapin & John McCutcheon - Doing Our Job (1997/2019)

John McCutcheon and Tom Chapin represent the absolute best of folk music, with heartfelt harmonies, witty commentaries masquerading as songs, and nimble performances. Individually they have both made stellar recordings, but together they are almost incomparable. This disc sparkles at every turn, whether zinging society's celebrity infatuation ("I Don't Care"), casting a knowing eye toward today's problems in comparison with those faced by our forebears ("Our Mothers Built This City"), or looking back in jest at one's ever growing reputation ("The Older I Get"). Another tune deserving special mention is the title track, which takes its inspiration from Cal Ripken's iron man performances for the Baltimore Orioles and applies it to the daily heroics performed by men and women across the world who do their jobs day in and day out without any recognition. This is a recording with several good songs and several great ones, and the performances by Chapin and McCutcheon, and sidemen Bobby Read and Michael Mark, are wonderful. The two also have released several sensational children's records, and it would be great to hear them team up on that material as well, but "Doing Our Job" is more than successful. It is that rarest of accomplishments, one where each song is a gem, and seems for the moment at least better than the one before it.