Presenting The New Christy Minstrels
| Presenting The New Christy Minstrels | ||||
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| Studio album by The New Christy Minstrels | ||||
| Released | October 1962 | |||
| Recorded | April 1962 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 32:01 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Jim Harbert | |||
| The New Christy Minstrels chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Presenting The New Christy Minstrels | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Presenting The New Christy Minstrels, also known as Exciting New Folk Chorus, is a studio album by the acoustic American folk music group The New Christy Minstrels. It was their debut album and was recorded in mid-April 1962. Columbia Records released the album in October 1962.
Presenting The New Christy Minstrels won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus in 1962 and occupied the Billboard 200 charts for two years, peaking at number 19. The album included a cover of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", which entered the pop singles charts in December 1962.
This album, along with the group's next, The New Christy Minstrels in Person was reissued on a single CD as Presenting & In Person with two bonus tracks by Collectors' Choice Music in 2003.
The New Christy Minstrels were created by singer/songwriter Randy Sparks in 1961 by combining three smaller folk groups, The Inn Group trio (John Forsha, Karol Dugan, Jerry Yester), The Fairmount Singers quartet, and his own Randy Sparks trio (Sparks, Jackie Miller, Nick Woods). He also included banjo player Billy Cudmore, folk-blues singer Terry Cudmore, folk singer Dolan Ellis, jazz singer Peggy Connelly, and singer/guitarist Art Podell. Sparks was experimenting with the notion of a folk orchestra and wanted to create a folk "supergroup".
The 14-piece group worked well together until "literally days" before recording their debut album when The Fairmount Singers were forced to withdraw because of a "poorly scheduled prior engagement". Reduced to ten members, the ensemble regrouped in mid-April 1962 and recorded Presenting The New Christy Minstrels.
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