George Hamilton IV doesn't seem to be that well known these days, probably because he didn't excel with original songs or a unique style. Here's his Wikipedia entry:
George Hamilton IV - Wikipedia
But he started out as a teen idol in the late 1950s, then switched to country music in the early 1960s. By the time of this festival, he had become very interested in playing folk songs in a country style. He had a knack for covering songs by emerging singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot. He had dozens of country hits in the 1960s and 1970s.
For his set at the festival, he played two songs by Lightfoot ("Steel Rail Blues" and "Early Mornin' Rain") and one by Mitchell ("Urge for Going"), as well as "Abeline," which was a Number One coutnry hit for him in the U.S. in 1963.
Ralph Stanley was a giant figure in bluegrass music for a long time. Here's his Wikipedia entry:
He was born in 1927 and died in 2016 at the age of 89. He was known both his his distinctive singing and his banjo playing. If you're not familiar with the bluegrass genre, he's probably best known in the wider popular culture for singing the song "Oh Death" in the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
This album is 39 minutes long. The Hamilton IV set is 19 minutes and the Stanley set is 20 minutes.
053 talk by Unknown Emcee (George Hamilton IV)
054 Steel Rail Blues (George Hamilton IV)
055 Abeline (George Hamilton IV)
056 talk (George Hamilton IV)
057 Urge for Going (George Hamilton IV)
058 talk (George Hamilton IV)
059 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right [Instrumental Version] (George Hamilton IV)
060 talk (George Hamilton IV)
061 Break My Mind (George Hamilton IV)
062 Early Morning Rain (George Hamilton IV)
063 talk by George Wein (George Hamilton IV)
064 talk by Unknown Emcee (Ralph Stanley)
065 How Mountain Girls Can Love (Ralph Stanley)
066 talk (Ralph Stanley)
067 Man of Constant Sorrow (Ralph Stanley)
068 talk (Ralph Stanley)
069 Pretty Polly - Wild Bill Jones (Ralph Stanley)
070 talk (Ralph Stanley)
071 The Hills of Roane County (Ralph Stanley)
072 talk (Ralph Stanley)
073 Sally Goodin' [Instrumental] (Ralph Stanley)
074 talk (Ralph Stanley)
075 Little Birdie (Ralph Stanley)
https://www.upload.ee/files/16033195/NewprtFlkFestivl_1968_05GeorgHamiltnIV_RlphStanly.zip.html
The cover art has a picture of Hamilton IV on the left and Stanley on the right. The one of Hamilton IV is from this exact concert. However, I couldn't find any photos of Stanley from the festival. In fact, I had trouble finding any good photos of him from this time period at all. I ended up using an undated black and white one. Then I colorized it using the Palette program.
Thanks for these Newport 68 shows!
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