Kenneth S. Goldstein (March 17, 1927 – November 11, 1995) was an American folklorist, educator and record producer and a "prime mover" in the

American Folk Music Revival The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Early folk music performers include Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, Ewan MacColl (UK), Richard Dyer-Bennet, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie ...

Early life and education

Goldstein was born in Brooklyn to Tillie Horowitz from Riga, Latvia and Irving Martin Goldstein from London, England. After military service in the US Army, Goldstein earned bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1949 and 1951 respectively.

Recordings

Whilst working as a statistician for Fairchild Productions, Goldstein developed his interest in folklife and particularly folksong of North American and the British Isles, becoming an important figure in the nascent folk music recording scene. He acted as folk music director for

Stinson Records Stinson Records was an American record label formed by Herbert Harris and Irving Prosky in 1939, initially to market, in the US, recordings made in the Soviet Union. Between the 1940s and 1960s, it mainly issued recordings of American folk and b ...

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service ...

and

Riverside Records Riverside Records was an American jazz record company and label. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade. Riversid ...

, and folk and blues director for

Prestige Records Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...

. He estimated that by the mid-1950s he was recording 60 albums per year. In total, he produced and recorded over 500 recordings in the 1950s and 1960s, including recordings by

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a British folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as o ...

and A.L. Lloyd,

Jean Ritchie Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally, ...

Reverend Gary Davis Gary D. Davis (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), known as Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Gary Davis, was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infanc ...

, Sara Cleveland,

the Clancy Brothers The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumpers and are widely credited with popularisi ...

and

Tommy Makem Thomas Makem (4 November 1932 – 1 August 2007) was an Irish folk music, folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo, tin whistle, l ...

. Some of these have been hailed as "milestones" in the histories of their respective genres. The albums he recorded for

(and its subsidiary

Bluesville Records Bluesville Records was an American record label subsidiary of Prestige Records, launched in 1959, with the primary purpose of documenting the work of the older classic bluesmen passed over by the changing audience. Such bluesmen as Roosevelt Sykes, ...

) with blues pioneers like

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its li ...

Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occas ...

Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was bor ...

Lead Belly Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...

, had a profound effect on American blues and rock and roll. The Clancy Brothers' albums introduced the guitar and the "ballad-group" sound into mainstream Irish folk music. Goldstein's recordings of MacColl and Lloyd were among the first English and Scottish albums ever recorded in the US and they opened up a vast new market that transformed the folk scene. Goldstein's liner notes for many of these albums established him as an expert in folksong.

Academia

Goldstein's interests in folksong and folklore acquired an academic standing in the 1960s. He began a Ph.D. at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, supervised by MacEdward Leach in 1958. Between 1959 and 1960 he was a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

based at the

School of Scottish Studies A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

in Edinburgh. For most of that year, Goldstein was based in

Strichen Strichen is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It sits on the A981, connecting it to New Deer to the southwest and Fraserburgh to the north-northeast, and the B9093, connecting it to New Pitsligo about due west. The village got its nam ...

in Aberdeenshire and carried out fieldwork on folksong amongst the Stewarts of Fetterangus. Goldstein completed his Ph.D. - the first awarded in folklore by the

- with a thesis titled ''A Guide for Fieldworkers in Folklore.'' Published as his first book in 1964, this work was widely translated and remained the standard text on its subject for decades. In 1962 Goldstein co-founded of the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Goldstein went on to teach at the

. From 1969, Goldtein served as Co-Chairman (with

Don Yoder Don Yoder (August 27, 1921– August 11, 2015) was an American folklorist specializing in the study of Pennsylvania Dutch, Quaker, and Amish and other Anabaptist folklife in Pennsylvania who wrote at least 15 books on these subjects. A professor em ...

) of the University's Folklife and Folklore Department. From 1971, Goldstein served as chair of the Department for nearly 20 years. In 1967, Goldstein received the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. Between 1976 and 1978 Goldstein acted as Head of Department of Folklore at

Memorial University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland, or MUN (), is a Public university, public research university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook ...

. During his time in the post he also carried out research into folklore amongst Newfoundland fishing communities.

Honours and recognition

In the 1970s, Goldstein acted as a special assistant on folklore and folklife to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was also on the advisory and review panel for the folk arts program of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

. In 1988 he acted as an adviser to the Australian National Folk Trust. Goldstein held a number of positions within the

American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the United States (US)-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote t ...

, including Secretary-Treasurer from 1965 and 1972 and President between 1975 and 1976. The American Folklore Society has created a scholarship fund in his honour, The Kenneth Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic Leadership. Goldstein’s collection of books and records is now housed at the

Center for the Study of Southern Culture Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

in Oxford, Mississippi and his collection of American broadsides and country-western folios is housed at the

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a Public university, public research university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges as ...

Center for Popular Music in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A ''

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' honouring Goldstein's contributions to the field of folklore, titled ''Fields of Folklore: Essays in Honor of Kenneth Goldstein'' and edited by Roger Abrahams, was published by Trickster Press in 1995.Abrahams, Roger D. (1995) Fields of Folklore: Essays in honor of Kenneth Goldstein, Trickster Press,

Family

He married Rochelle Judith Korn in 1949. She was a partner in his work and together they had five children, including Diane Goldstein, a folk music academic and Jah Levi, a music producer.

References

Bibliography

* Baggelaar, Kristin and Donald Milton (1976)
Folk Music: More Than A Song, p. 147-8
', . * Baggelaar, Kristin and Donald Milton (1977)
The Folk Music Encyclopaedia, p. 147-8
', . * Carlin, Richard (2007)
American Popular Music: Folk, p. 78
', .

External links

About Goldstein at the Kenneth Goldstein fonds Memorial University page
* Abrahams, Roger D. (1995) ''Fields of folklore. Essays in honor of Kenneth Goldstein'', Trickster Press,
KENNETH GOLDSTEIN RECORDINGS

DISCOGRAPHY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstein, Kenneth S. 1927 births 1995 deaths American folklorists Record producers from New York (state) City College of New York alumni Academic staff of the Memorial University of Newfoundland University of Pennsylvania alumni Presidents of the American Folklore Society