You mean before The Roof Top Singers, The Journeymen and The Kingston Trio? There was "folk-music" back then?

I seem to remember that there were records my family listened to by Tex Ritter, Tony Kraber, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Burl Ives, Harry Belafonte, John Jacob Niles, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Joseph & Marais or do you just want the commercial hit fore-runners?