I agree with the sentiments expressed at the beginning of this thread. The Kingston Trio opened many doors for other erstwhile "folksinging" groups, and they also introduced multitides to folk music. My particular favorite from the "folk era" (don't like the term "folk scare"), the Chad Mitchell Trio, was another group that was boxed into the category of "folksingers" because, with the success of the Kingstons, every record label had to have their own folk trio wearing matching outfits. The CMT were even less "folk" than the Kingstons - none of them played instruments and they often wore matching blazers and ties. "Button-down folk music" is how one non-admiring journalist described them. But they never called themselves folksingers either. For all their talent, and a repertoire than ran the gamut from political songs like "The John Birch Society" and "Barry's Boys" to Paxton's "Marvelous Toy," they never had a hit record. Many people are surprised to learn that it was the CMT who first recorded "Blowin in the Wind" commercially. Their record label at the time wouldn't allow them to release the song as a single (can't have a hit song with the word "death" in it, you know). Had Kapp Records (and its parent, Belafonte Enterprises) not been so narrow-minded, we'd be here discussing the Kingstons and the Chad Mitchell Trio, rather than the Kingstons and PP&M.