In the history of modern folk song, Tom Paxton -- famous to those aware of what he's done with his life in uncountable recordings and on concert stages -- looms large. Modern folk songs can be defined as songs that owe a debt to their traditional counterparts (straightforward lyrics, acoustic stringed instruments, uncomplicated melodies) but address the world in which we live now, and the composers are seldom anonymous. In other words, while respecting it, they don't attempt to replicate the old stuff. When he arrived on the Greenwich Village scene in December 1960, Paxton brought a fresh sensibility to the art of folk-based songwriting.

Amazingly, Paxton is still around, if no longer touring, and composing the same kinds of songs he started fashioning 65 years ago. They're as good as they ever were. Perhaps even more amazingly, he seems to have managed to reincarnate before death; how else to explain New Mexico's C. Daniel Boling? Boling resembles Paxton both in voice and in ideation. When together they release an album like It Matters, with each of the 16 songs credited to both, the result, depending on how old you are, turns out to be either an outstanding Paxton record or an awe-inspiring Boling one.

Actually, it can be confusing. You can consult the liner notes and find out who's singing lead at the moment, of course, but if you don't have them at hand, you'll have to figure out whose voice has more miles on it. Not easy in all instances, surprisingly. In any event, the overall quality of everything is gratifying. I know Paxton's catalogue because I've been listening to him since the mid-1960s. I've been listening to Boling since 2025. While I am versed in Paxton's outlook on the world, I can only speculate if the younger Boling got his from exposure to his partner's songs or if he came into the world with his own kindred vision. It doesn't matter (if you will pardon the expression). All we need to know is that theirs is a duo made in modern-folk heaven.

I have never met Paxton, though we share mutual friends. As a singer-songwriter Paxton never comes across as saccharine, but he always seems kind. He has a personal reputation to match. In his life as a musician, he sings of un-famous ordinary human beings as seen by an empathetic observer. Beyond that, he is noted for political-tinged material. On the current album we hear several numbers in that vein, leavened with characteristic dark humor.

There is also a sweet, funny song ("Sgt. Reckless") about an apparently real-life horse who served honorably in the Korean War and retired with the medals to prove it. Anybody who lives, breathes and interacts with our corporate overlords will have lived through the situation related in "Go Away." I'm certain, though, that this will be the first time you've laughed about it. And if you're looking for a movingly spiritual anti-gospel song, you'll find it in "God's Too Big." Who would have thought you could raise profound theological questions in a simple tune just over two minutes long?

It Matters improbably transcends most singer-songwriter formulas. The bond that links Boling and Paxton will touch, at moments astound, listeners who understand what is happening here. Those who don't, though, will embrace the rare wit and wisdom floating into their ears and hearts. A small miracle, it feels like, and one definitely good for all of us.