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including conga player and singer Nick Reynolds. That band evolved into the act that
became the ‘big bang’ of the folk music revival, the Kingston Trio.
If the pop folk era was brief, its impact on American popular music was enduring.
The music was approachable and an exciting alternative to the inane ‘Top 40’ fare that
dominated pop radio between the first rush of rock and roll and the British Invasion. It
was produced and packaged for a more selective audience that preferred albums over
singles, and coincided with the arrival of stereophonic sound. Many later figures in
American popular entertainment were inspired by the icons of late fifties/early sixties
folk, among them Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Neil Young, Stephen Stills,
David Crosby, Marty Balin, Bobby Darin, Van Dyke Parks, John Phillips, Bonnie
Raitt, Tim Hauser, John Sebastian, Jerry Garcia, Dan Hicks, Timothy B. Schmitt, Kenny
Rogers, Roger McGuinn, Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.
Unlike jazz, classical or rock music, the genre never spawned the insightful reviews
and analyses that helped shape critical thinking. As a rule, magazines and fanzines
targeting urban folk music enthusiasts ignored or dismissed acts like The Kingston
Trio, The Limeliters, The Chad Mitchell Trio or The New Christy Minstrels, only
