Remembering the folk music revival of 

the late 50s and early 60s

The odds are good that each of us - every member of the Plank Road Folk Music Society - was influenced by what came to be known as the American Folk Music Revival.

It's been referred to as "The Great Folk Scare" - tongue-in-cheek by some, but quite seriously by others who feared that folk music was just one more leftist plot to bring down America.

It was a phenomenon that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. But Its roots were earlier with performers like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Jean Ritchie, Cisco Houston and others enjoying limited popularity in the 1930s and 1940s.

The first wave 

Folk music became more popular (and commercial) with The Weavers - formed in 1948 by Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert. The Weavers had a big hit in 1950 with Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene" - number one on the Billboard charts for thirteen weeks. This was followed by a string of hit singles that sold millions, including "So Long It's Been Good to Know You" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine". But the Weavers' career ended abruptly when they were dropped by their record label because Pete Seeger had been listed as a "probable subversive."

In the early and mid-1950s, folksongs were mostly heard in coffee houses, at hootenannies and college-campus concerts. A few performers, such as Odetta and Harry Belafonte, crossed over into the mainstream. Folk music was often associated with political dissent, but now blended with the beatnik scene, including poetry and jazz, and eventually led to the rise of individual singer-songwriters.

1957 . . . and three guys from the West Coast
Folk purists may not love 'em, but the Kingston Trio made a huge impact on the popularity of folk music. Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds formed the trio in 1957, and a year later they were superstars.

Their style and presentation were directly inspired by the Weavers - but they avoided overtly political or protest songs and cultivated a clean-cut, collegiate persona. Their first hit, "Tom Dooley", went gold in 1958, selling more than three million copies. At one point in 1959, the Trio had four albums in the Top 10 for five consecutive weeks.

The Kingston Trio sold millions  of albums in the late '50s

The huge commercial success of the Kingston Trio spawned a host of groups like the Brothers Four, Peter Paul and Mary, The Limeliters, The Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels and many more.

The revival at its height
The Kingston Trio's popularity would be followed by that of Joan Baez, whose debut album reached the top ten in late 1960 and remained on the Billboard charts for over two years. Baez's early albums contained mostly traditional material and covers of melancholy ballads. Baez, unlike the Kingston Trio, was openly political, and as the civil rights movement gathered steam, aligned herself with Pete Seeger, Guthrie and others.

A guitar, a harmonica . . . and that "unique" voice
In 1961, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, was signed by Columbia. Dylan's first record enjoyed some popularity among Greenwich Village folk-music enthusiasts, but he was "discovered" by an immensely larger audience when Peter, Paul & Mary had a hit with a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind".

Bob Dylan in his Greenwich Village days

As a result of the financial success of these high-profile commercial folk artists, record companies began to produce records by a new generation of folk revival and singer-songwriters - Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Eric von Schmidt, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Dave Van Ronk, Judy Collins, Bob Gibson, Tom Rush, Fred Neil, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, Arlo Guthrie, Harry Chapin, John Hartford and others.

In addition, many "less commercial" artists gained recognition, often enlightening audiences to other musical genres such as blues, jug band, bluegrass, country, old-time music and more. Some of these influential artists included Doc Watson, The Stanley Brothers, Mississippi John Hurt, The New Lost City Ramblers, The Clancy Brothers, The Staples Singers and many more.

Rock fights back . . . with an English accent
The British Invasion of the mid-1960s helped bring an end to the mainstream popularity of American folk music. A wave of British bands overwhelmed most of the American music scene - including folk. Ironically, the roots of the British Invasion were in American folk - specifically a variant known as skiffle, as popularized by Lonnie Donegan - and American blues, as interpreted by groups such as The Animals and the early Rolling Stones.

Dylan goes electric! Oh, no!
Some say the "official" end of the Great Folk Scare occurred when Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Many other folk artists followed suit. Bands like The Lovin' Spoonful, The Byrds and The Mamas & Papas - whose individual members had a background in folk music - were getting recording contracts. "Folk rock" was born, and before long, the public appetite for the acoustic music of the folk revival began to wane.  

Legacy
By the late 1960s, folk music had returned to being more of a low-key, aficionado phenomenon. But the acoustic music coffeehouse scene - while limited - has survived; a prime example being our very own Two Way Street Coffee House, celebrating 45 years of continuous folk entertainment in Downers Grove!

- Bill Lemos