Portly nerd, or underrated troubadour? You may know Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (say that ten times fast) as the cuddly snowman narrator of Rankin Bass' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but that iconic turn came late in a busy career and fascinating, swervy life.

Long before his film roles in East of Eden, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Big Country (which earned him an Oscar), before he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 (calling out Pete Seeger as a communist), Ives was a high school dropout from Illinois who went kicking around the country, making ends meet with a banjo and gently delivered Civil War-era tunes and Depression blues ditties.

He eventually found his way onto 1930s radio (his show was called "The Wayfaring Stranger"); the just-released Songs from the Big Rock Candy Mountain collects a handful of numbers from this period that are vintage Burl and classic early Americana.