The Folk Years

There was a time when folk music was heard all across America and around the world, from coffee houses to concert halls, when a new generation of folk groups and singer-songwriters helped to change the sound of music forever. Now, THE FOLK YEARS brings listeners back to a time when songs were woven from the many threads of America’s rich musical tapestry by, now legendary and iconic artists, such as The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, The Seekers, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, Don McLean and many more. For fans of the genre, THE FOLK YEARS, from StarVista Entertainment/Time Life is the most comprehensive collection of folk and folk rock hits ever assembled. Available in an 8 CD set, the collection is housed in a handsome box which also includes a 52-page lyrics booklet including liner notes and the bonus DVD “Legends of Folk: The Village Scene”, a documentary bursting with rare and historic full-length performances. THE FOLK YEARS can be purchased online at www.timelife.com/products/the-folk-years. From the greatest hits of the folk revival in the 1950s and the legendary folk scene of the early 1960s to the emergence of folk rock, and even the beginning of the singer-songwriter era, never before has one collection captured the very essence of folk music like THE FOLK YEARS. Timeless songs featured include “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and “Tom Dooley” by The Kingston Trio, “Lemon Tree” by Trini Lopez, “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday” by The Mamas & the Papas, “Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There is a Season)” and “Mr.Tambourine Man” by the Byrds, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul and Mary, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by Joan Baez, “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” by Bob Dylan and more. Also included is “Legends of Folk: The Village Scene” from 4-time Emmy® award winning director Jim Brown and hosted by Peter, Paul and Mary’s Noel Paul Stookey. Originally seen on PBS, the feature-length documentary includes rare and historic full-length performances by artists like Simon Garfunkel and Joan Baez, plus Dylan’s historic performance of “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the Newport Folk Festival of 1963. It also features interviews with such folk luminaries as Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas, Don McLean, John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful, Maria Muldaur and others who strummed and sang through the 1960s. 
Aside from hosting “Legends of Folk,” Stookey also hosts the long-form infomercial that takes viewers on a journey through folk and folk rock from the fifties through the early seventies and features more than 75 historic performance clips of the songs in the collection. Along the way, this folk icon also performs some classic songs including “If I Had a Hammer”, “Tom Dooley” and “Walk Right In.” Shot in The Bitter End, the historic Greenwich Village club where many folk artists – including Peter, Paul and Mary — had their start and performed and recorded over the years, one of the program’s special moments has Stookey singing part of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and introduces Bob Dylan’s historic performance of that song at The Newport Folk Festival in 1963.