Jack Elliott

There are many key tracks on this compilation of late-Fifties/early-Sixties folk recordings - but none are more significant than track eight, disc two. The Kingston Trio's version of 'Tom Dooley' opened the floodgates by topping the US chart in 1958, inspiring a five-year folk boom that would give many soon-to-be familiar names their start in music. Folk music had been an integral part of American culture for decades. But the boom - revival, call it what you will - that flowered in the coffee houses of New York's Greenwich Village as the Fifties closed would inspire a new generation to pick up their acoustic guitars. To take yourself back to the halcyon days of Bob, Joanie and Tom Dooley, just press play.

In early 1961, a 19 year old Bob Dylan, having dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year, travelled to New York City, ostensibly to visit his idol Woody Guthrie, hospitalised with Huntingdon's Disease. He headed straight for Greenwich Village, by then the epicentre of the folk music revival that Dylan was hoping to become a part of. In his recent autobiography Chronicles he writes; 'Greenwich was full of full of folk clubs and bars and those of us who played them all played the old timey folk songs, rural blues and dance tunes'.

American Folk Anthology Volume One is a compilation CD released by Fuel2000 via Varèse Sarabande. While the title says it is folk, it also includes the blues and the country musics.

American Jazz Philharmonic is the 1993 self-titled album by the American Jazz Philharmonic. Released on Dave Grusin's GRP label, the orchestra is conducted by Jack Elliott and features a wide range of musicians, including Joe Porcaro, Phil Woods, Ray Brown amd Louise DiTullio.

It was distinctly ironic: at the very zenith of America's postwar space-age love affair with TV, 3-D, and rock & roll (and other disposable cultural ephemera), a grassroots movement set out to recapture the country's lost musical heritage. These curious minds not only found it in a wealth of seemingly forgotten protest songs, spiritual blues, and country laments, but also forged new songs in its image. That this crusade sprang from lower Manhattan's Washington Square and the doorstep of New York University made the paradox all the sweeter. Ted Myers, the producer of this triple-disc anthology, grew up just blocks from the epicenter of that folk-quake, and his generous sense of place and time permeates this rich collection. Generally misunderstood and historically pigeonholed, the era finally gets its due, chronicled here by 72 tracks that extend far beyond the roots-conscious work of Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Pete Seeger on one hand, and the more popular material by the Kingston Trio, Limeliters, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan on the other. Culturally, the Folk movement was the alt-rock of its day–if eminently more conscious of history and politically committed. Musically, it encompassed an ethos that enthusiastically blurred the boundaries between blues, Appalachian ballads, jug music, pure country, honky-tonk, work songs, and even unbridled novelty; this set explores them all, often with a palpable sense of discovery. Historically, the movement championed preservation at the same time it gleefully tweaked old sensibilities in pursuit of new inspiration. Listen and you'll hear music that became touchstones for artists as diverse as the Byrds, Roberta Flack, Rod Stewart, and–wittingly or not–every passionate coffeehouse minstrel who's strode on stage with a guitar ever since. –Jerry McCulley

While "folk music" originally defined the sort of indigenous music that was passed from one self-taught musician to another over years and even centuries, by the '60s the phrase came to refer to the work of singers and songwriters who used acoustic melodies as a vehicle for lyrics that often carried personal, social, or political messages. Featuring 30 songs, The Only Folk Collection You'll Ever Need offers a bit of the former and a great deal of the latter; along with performances by legitimate folk legends the Carter Family, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, Mississippi John Hurt, and Woody Guthrie, this set also features classic tracks from most of the major folk stars of the '50s and '60s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Gordon Lightfoot, Donovan, Judy Collins, and many more. Though it is far from the only folk collection one might need or want, this set does feature an impressive cross-section of important and essential artists, who are for the most part represented by their most celebrated works. As a sampler of the cream of the postwar folk boom, this collection does a fine job, and would be a good starter for a youngster eager to learn about the folk and singer/songwriter movements.