Roger Sprung’s Folk Credentials

To the Editor:

As a five-string banjo player myself, and a contemporary of Roger Sprung’s, I very much enjoyed the feature article you did on him in your June 19 issue. [Roger Sprung: Newtown’s Own Pioneer of Blue Grass.]

Your readers may be interested in knowing that he played a significant role in bringing folk music into national popularity from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s when such groups as The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary recorded folk songs that were top sellers. Authors of books and articles about American popular music invariably credit the Kingston’s Trio’s recording of the old folk song “Tom Dooley” as starting the movement and their founding member, Dave Guard, has been quoted as saying that their arrangement was copied from a previous recording of the song by the Folksay Trio of which Roger was the founding member.

Sincerely yours,

Tom Dwyer

8 Obtuse Road, Newtown                                                 June 22, 2009