VA Greenwich Village: The Folk Scene (2014)

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.

The Greenwich Village folk scene burned bright in the mid- 60s, with artists congregating to road test material in club crucibles. If you ever see an Elektra album from this period with the names Jac Holzman, Paul Rothchild and William S Harvey on the sleeve, you’re in for something unusual; these discs illustrate that perfectly.

On the second volume of Bear Family's extensive four-part, 12-disc series, Bob Dylan arrives at the midpoint, his introduction as seismic as an atomic bomb. Prior to his introduction on the second disc – or CD 5, as the packaging denotes – a disc has been spent on "The Popular Folk Music Era," i.e. the sweet, freshly-scrubbed crossover folk performed by the Kingston Trio, the Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, the Rooftop Singers, and the New Christy Minstrels.