As long as we're jumping into seldom featured material on Newstalgia, I thought I would keep it going with a dose of, what is sometimes referred to as "Traditional Jazz", but at the time of this broadcast was known simply as Dixieland.

Pretty much faded from view as genres go, Dixieland (or Traditional Jazz) had a real spike in popularity in the mid-1950's and was considered something of a raucous cousin where serious Jazz was concerned. Certainly when compared to the Cool School, Dixieland got it's fair share of cringe worthy reactions. But, in all fairness, this was the basis for which a lot of Jazz sprang from - as evidenced by Louis Armstrong who is probably it's most well known figure.

Al Hirt was a fixture for Mardi Gras and was as much a part of the scenery in New Orleans as the proverbial Crawfish boil. Hirt achieved huge commercial success through a number of hit singles and popular albums and was, conceivably as instrumental in making Traditional Jazz a popular mainstream idiom as The Kingston Trio and The Christy Minstrels were in making Folk music a popular genre for mainstream consumption.

So tonight it's an episode of the weekly CBS Radio program Jazz Band Ball featuring Al Hirt and his band live in New Orleans from August 18, 1956.

A good time was had by all.

Dipping into some early 60's vintage Americana this weekend with the legendary Kingston Trio, recorded live at The Hollywood Bowl during the Summer of 1961. This was the first Hollywood Bowl appearance of the new Trio lineup, with John Stewart having joined after the exit of founding member Dave Guard in April of that year. It's interesting because I ran sometime back a Hollywood Bowl concert featuring Dave Guard's Whiskey Hill Singers, which was the Hollywood Bowl debut of that band also in 1961. I also ran the first part of this concert a few weeks ago as part of Newstalgia Downbeat as it featured opening acts The Dave Brubeck Quartet along with Keely Smith (also making her Hollywood Bowl solo debut).

This is solidly in that period of time when Folk music had taken on massive popular appeal and many groups made the crossover from strictly Folk music to a sort of Folk/Pop hybrid that would eventually morph into Folk/Rock some years later.

The popularity of the Folk genre would fade over time, particularly at the onset of The British Invasion in 1964. But elements were rescued when Folk/Rock emerged with a whole different set of practitioners. But just about every one of them took their nod from The Kingston Trio.

So here they are with the complete set as it was recorded - never available commercially or even thought to have existed. Rescued from the dumpster a couple of decades ago, and preserved to let you know what it actually sounded like.

It's 1961 all over again - at least for the next hour.

A dose of Americana tonight by way of the King of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. This is a tape made during a performance at New River Ranch in Rising Sun, Maryland on July 28, 1963 playing to an enthusiastic audience. Bluegrass staged a revival in the late 1950's/ early 1960's, right around the same time Folk Music dipped its toes in mainstream and gave us The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four, The Christy Minstrels and a whole generation of others. But what it also did was give Bluegrass a boost and legendary practitioners like Bill Monroe were on hand to reap the rewards and adulation of a whole new audience of fans who had never been exposed to this slice of rural life before.

And maybe you haven't either. Bill Monroe left a long and rich legacy, and fortunately for many, these concerts were recorded and are, for the most part preserved. These tapes weren't broadcast and judging by the photos in the tape box, were recorded by a very dedicated engineer by the name of George B. McCeney. Anything beyond that, I really don't know aside from this being a pretty fast-paced half hour of some serious Bluegrass.

Something you don't hear every day.