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The latest volume in Ace’s popular Golden Age of American Popular Music series, THE FOLK HITS is a compendium of just about every folk hit to reach Billboard’s Hot 100 (and a couple that ‘bubbled under’) during the so-called Golden Age when folk music was regarded as a form of light entertainment rather than a means of political or personal expression.
It kicked off when the Kingston Trio topped the international charts with ‘Tom Dooley’ in 1958 and reached its commercial peak in the summer of 1963 before fading in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination in November that year. Some argue that ‘Tom Dooley’ was as important a record as ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ in that it sparked an explosion of interest in folk music which would profoundly influence the music of the 60s. Soon every major label (and some minor ones too) had a folk group on its books. The record companies attempted to break their folk acts through hit singles, hoping to stimulate sales in the lucrative album market. By the early 1960s, folk music had become big business and when TV took an interest, it became a national obsession. While some artists became more radicalised, many others remained apolitical and sought merely to entertain.
Here then are the hits of the folk era assembled on one CD from the best possible sources for the first time. Aside from all the major hits such as the rousing ‘Green Green’, the classic ‘Walk Right In’ and the wistful ‘Greenfields’ are several tunes that have never, or only very rarely, appeared on CD before including ‘Ballad of The Alamo’ by Bud & Travis (in stereo) and the Lee Hazlewood song/ production, ‘Stranger In Your Town’ by the Shacklefords. Fans of Hazlewood’s laconic style will immediately detect his influence. The Highwaymen’s ‘Michael’ and ‘Cottonfields’ have not been available on CD for over a decade and are heard here in stereo. The Kingston Trio’s four best known hits are presented here as the most representative samples of their work. Peter, Paul & Mary’s ‘If I Had A Hammer’ appears on a compilation for the first time too.
The humungous 28-page booklet contains a magnificent essay following the devel- opment of the post-war folk scene and details of each record featured, together with many rare ads and photos from an era so affectionately spoofed in the movie A Mighty Wind. THE FOLK HITS will have them a-hummin’ and a-strummin’!
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