"The Kingston Trio were there at exactly the right time, and were totally inoffensive and unremarkable. Accordingly, they sold an incredible number of albums. Well, so did Harry Belafonte. Remember? I don't call that influential...I call it "generating big sales". "

I'm not trying to say that the Kingston Trio created "art" in the same sense that a group like the Weaver's did.   Certainly the impact of the Weavers can be felt in more substantial work than that of the Kingston Trio, a group that largely did "cover tunes".    However, getting back once again to the original intent of this thread, I think that it is important to focus on the sales when you are discussing the Kingston Trio. If all they did was sell albums, then your points are valid. However, those sales played an important role in creating THE FOLK REVIVAL, even if it did not seriously alter the ongoing folk movement in this country.

I'm drawing a blank on who said it, but recently I heard someone say "Bob Dylan did not change my life, but he changed the way I listen to music".   For good or bad, the Kingston Trio did the same thing with their initial album. The people who were involved with folk music on a deeper level would recognize it as a commercialization of "their" music and take offense. For others who had yet to discover what folk music is all about, it was a HUGE gateway.   Some people may have lingered by that gate and walked back out when the next big thing hit, but many more walked through and discovered all the artists that many of you are discussing.

So, yes, you can call the music of the Kingston Trio important on the influence and/or impact that they had. In this instance, the amount of record sales helped spawn a movement.    Yes, there were a number of crass groups and artists that jumped on the bandwagon and issued awful recordings.   Yes, there were many more who discovered that the roots were much deeper and found greater influences.    I feel it is extremely short-sighted to dismiss the Kingston Trio for those very reasons. I'm not saying that their music was good (although I do think some of it really was), but you need to look at their place in history and the change they helped create.