Smokey says, "The biggest popularity boost folk music has ever had was when it was electrified and marketed by the established music business. That resulted in a significant growth of awareness of, and interest in the more acoustic and 'authentically traditional' (whatever that may be..) end of the market."

When I first got interested in folk music, it was moving like a stealthy submarine of esoterica through a sea of dark obscurity. In the 1930s, Alan Lomax did a program on folk music on "The American School of the Air," an educational radio program that was beamed at schools. I may have heard some of these programs when I was little. In the late 1940s, Burl Ives had a radio program on Sunday afternoons called "The Wayfaring Stranger," on which he talked about American history and sang songs that grew out of historical incidents. In 1948, I believe it was, I saw a movie entitled "Glamour Girl," about a young woman from the southern mountains who had been brought to New York to sing folk songs in some guy's night club. It starred Susan Reed, who played zither and Irish harp, and, along with Burl Ives, had a couple of recordings on the market.

My active interest, as that of several other people I knew, was ignited by Walt Robertson, a professional singer of folk songs, when I went to one of his concerts with my girl friend at the time.

And AT that time, if you were to mention "folk music" to anyone, most people thought you were talking about "hillbilly music" like they played on Grand Ole Opry or "Modern Western Swing" as sung by groups like The Sons of the Pioneers.

Then, along came Harry Belafonte. He sparked a moderate interest in folk music, and a year or two later, Calypso.

Then, in November of 1958, a new group burst on the popular music scene when their recording of a FOLK song—"Tom Dooley"—wound up on the pop music Hit Parade! Other groups, The Limeliters, The Brothers Four, The New Christy Minstrels, and still others, started popping up like mushrooms!

And suddenly thousands of young people (but not just young people) were buying guitars and learning how to play them, and singing folk songs!!

Need I remind anybody that The Kingston Trio, The Limeliters, The Brothers Four, The New Christy Minstrels, The Gateway Singers, Peter Paul and Mary and may others were PROFESSIONAL SINGERS who, in the main, sang FOLK SONGS!??

They were slick, they were commercial, and they often flew from engagement to engagement on jet planes. And they were paid quite well to sing in big theaters, concert halls, and arenas.

When they, as happens with ALL POPULAR MUSIC fads were suddenly eclipsed in the mid-1960s by "The British Invasion:" The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Gary and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, et al, the fading of these professional groups, who sang folk songs, from the pop music scene left behind it a huge residue of people who were actively interested in singing and playing folk songs themselves, some turning into folk music scholars and beginning to form the backbone of the enduring interest in folk music, American and British, that continues today. And in quite good health, I might add.

Although I had become interested in folk music and was actively singing for various groups for a few years before they came along, in all honesty, I MUST acknowledge that the greatest spur in interest in folk music came from these groups of slick, commercial, dress-alike, vertically-stripped button-down shirted college boys singing polished, highly arranged renditions of traditional American folk songs. And with people like Lonnie Donegan and others, the same thing was happening in the British Isles.

So—anyone genuinely interested in the preservation and promulgation of folk music owes a great deal to those "greedy, mercenary, professional jet-setting leeches" who went around singing folk songs for huge, enthusiastic audiences who voluntarily paid top prices to hear them in person and bought their records by the millions.

Conrad, I'm always more than happy to assist those who are groping about in an effort to find a way out of the thick fog of confusion. So I suggest that you study the following two pictures very carefully, until you can finally tell which is which.

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

I'm always glad to be of assistance to those so desperately in need.

No need to thank me.

Don Firth