Folk traditions, characteristics, and development. Focuses on musical style and development; performer-centered biographies belong in Artists.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Which singer was the Mary in Peter, Paul and Mary?
Travers sang contralto while Peter Yarrow sang tenor and Paul Stookey sang baritone.
Which Peter, Paul and Mary song was the trio's only Billboard No. 1 hit?
The trio recorded the John Denver song for Album 1700 in 1967, then released it as a single in 1969.
Which folk-rock singer's "American Pie" mourns the 1959 Buddy Holly crash?
McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy when Holly died, and he later called the crash the day the music died.
Which folk trio scored a 1963 Top 10 hit with "Puff, the Magic Dragon"?
Peter, Paul and Mary's version of "Puff, the Magic Dragon" peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1963.
Which group took Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" to No. 1 in 1965?
The Byrds cut the song with a jangling 12-string guitar, creating the template for folk rock.
Which trio took Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" to No. 2 in 1963?
The single sold 300,000 copies in its first week and topped the easy-listening chart for five weeks.
Which folk singer recorded the 18-minute "Alice's Restaurant Massacree"?
The talking-blues song recounts a 1965 Thanksgiving littering arrest that later kept Guthrie from the draft.
Which duo hit No. 1 after producer Tom Wilson added electric instruments to "The Sound of Silence"?
Paul Simon first saw the remixed hit climbing Billboard while performing solo in Denmark.
Which folk-rock group scored a 1966 hit with "California Dreamin'"?
John and Michelle Phillips wrote the song in 1963, and Barry McGuire's original vocal lingers in the opening bars.
Which instrument did Earl Scruggs make famous with three-finger picking?
Scruggs played "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme for The Beverly Hillbillies.