Affectionately dubbed "the Mayor of MacDougal Street," Van Ronk was an influential artist with a singular style; he had a gruff but expressive voice that he could bend to nearly any style he wished with his witty and thoughtful phrasing, and he was a gifted guitarist whose jazzy fingerpicking was a far cry from the generic strum of many of his compatriots. Van Ronk never became a major star, but he enjoyed a long and celebrated career, recording and performing up to his death in 2002; Live in Monterey is a previously unreleased recording of Van Ronk working his magic for an audience in California on April 4, 1998, and while the performance features just Van Ronk's voice and guitar, this album demonstrates how much he could conjure with such simple ingredients, and ranks with his best live releases.