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The pop folk era coincided with the rise of smart, hip entertainment for an educated,
collegiate audience. Tom Lehrer, Shelly Berman, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Mort
Sahl, Lenny Bruce and Chicago’s The Second City were redefining American comedy,
while Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Mose Allison and the vocal trio
Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross created jazz that was appealing and
accessible. Acts that were once limited to hip urban cabarets now migrated to college
auditoriums.
Some observers cite the start of the urban folk music revival as theWeavers’Christmas
Eve 1955 reunion at Carnegie Hall. However, a more direct impetus was ‘Calypso,’ a
1956 album by cabaret singer Harry Belafonte. If its songs were more Jamaican-flavored
ballads and novelties than true calypsos, the album offered light exotic fare that millions
of the era’s record buyers found irresistible. As Belafonte became a major concert
attraction, record label executives hurriedly signed acts that could reproduce that sound
and style. The Tarriers and the Easy Riders, two folk trios inspired by the Weavers,
independently landed hit singles in the Jamaican mold. Dave Guard, a Honolulu native
studying at Stanford University near San Jose, California, was another folk music
enthusiast caught up in the short-lived calypso craze. Guard formed a quartet that
