The 5th Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 15, 1963, at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians for the year 1962. Tony Bennett and Igor Stravinsky each won 3 awards.
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter primarily known for his 1965 hit "Eve of Destruction". Later he would pioneer as a singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian music.
The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including "Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Today", "Denver" and "This Land Is Your Land". The group's 1962 debut album, Presenting the New Christy Minstrels, won a Grammy Award and remained on the Billboard 200 albums chart for two years.
"Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)" (also known as In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home) is a song written by American blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, who made the first recording of the song in 1940.
There's a Light Beyond These Woods was singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith's debut album. It was recorded live to two-track over four days, December 9 to 11, 1977 and January 3, 1978, in Austin, Texas. Griffith wrote most of its songs, as she would on almost all of her subsequent albums.
Aereo-Plain is a 1971 studio album by American bluegrass singer-songwriter and instrumentalist John Hartford. It reached number 193 on The Billboard 200 chart.
The Kingston Trio At Large is the American folk music group the Kingston Trio's fourth album, released in 1959. It was the Trio's first stereo studio album and one of the four they would simultaneously have on Billboard's Top 10 albums during that year. It spent fifteen weeks at #1. The single "M. T. A." b/w "All My Sorrows" spent eleven weeks on the singles charts and peaked at number 15. The Trio's second single that same year, "The Tijuana Jail" b/w "Oh Cindy", was recorded during The Kingston Trio At Large sessions. It peaked at number 12.
"Today" is a folk rock ballad written by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner from the band Jefferson Airplane. It first appeared on their album Surrealistic Pillow with a live version later appearing on the expanded rerelease of Bless Its Pointed Little Head. Marty Balin said, "I wrote it to try to meet Tony Bennett. He was recording in the next studio. I admired him, so I thought I'd write him a song. I never got to meet him, but the Airplane ended up doing it." Jerry Garcia plays the simple, repetitive but poignant lead guitar riff on the song.
Steven Mann was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist based in California. Highly acclaimed by other musicians for his fingerpicking style, Mann performed in clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the early 1960s, for a time backing up Janis Joplin in open mikes. Mann's first professional credits were appearances on the debut albums recorded by Sonny and Cher as a duo and Cher as a soloist, both in 1965. He also appeared on Dr. John's 1968 debut album and wrote a song recorded by Rod McKuen.
Honey in the Lion's Head is an album by folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown. It is his second release on the Trailer Records label.
Randy Sparks is an American musician, singer-songwriter and founder of The New Christy Minstrels and The Back Porch Majority.
The Back Porch Majority was an American folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1963. It was intended to be a rehearsal space for The New Christy Minstrels, another group Sparks had established in 1961, but it ended up becoming successful on its own. The group released six albums, appeared on several TV shows and was chosen to provide entertainment at the White House in 1965.
"Pick a Bale o' Cotton" is a traditional American folk song and work song first recorded by Texas inmates James "Iron Head" Baker (1933) and Mose "Clear Rock" Platt (1939) and later popularized by Lead Belly. Johnny Cash, as well as others, have released adaptations of the song.
A Spontaneous Performance Recording!: The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, sometimes simply called A Spontaneous Performance, is a 1961 collection of traditional Irish folk songs performed by The Clancy Brothers with frequent collaborator Tommy Makem. It was their first album for Columbia Records. The group would continue to record for Columbia for the remainder of the 1960s. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1962 for Best Folk Recording.
Hilario D. "Larry" Ramos Jr. was an American guitarist, banjo player and vocalist known primarily for his work with the 1960s pop band the Association. In 1963, he won a Grammy Award with the New Christy Minstrels.
Folk Time is an album by the Hart Valley Drifters, an American folk music band. It was recorded in 1962 at the studios of KZSU, a radio station at Stanford University. It was released by ATO Records on November 11, 2016.
"High Flying Bird" is a song written by American folk and country singer-songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler, and first recorded by Judy Henske in 1963. It was performed and recorded by many musicians and groups in the mid and late 1960s, and was influential on the folk rock genre.
William Zorn is an American folk music singer, banjo player, and guitarist who was a member of The New Christy Minstrels, The Limeliters, and The Kingston Trio, as well as lesser known groups The Windjammers and Arizona Smoke Review.
"Today" is a 1964 folk song that was a hit for The New Christy Minstrels. Written by the group's founder, Randy Sparks, it was introduced in the American comedy-Western film Advance to the Rear (1964) and released on the album titled Today.
"Green, Green" is a hit single released by American folk music group The New Christy Minstrels on June 4, 1963. It was composed and written by group members Barry McGuire and Randy Sparks and became the group's first hit. Since then, it has been covered by many singers and artists from all over the world.
