0
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
American musician
1
Jean Ritchie
Jean Ritchie
American folk singer
2
John Jacob Niles
John Jacob Niles
American musician
3
Reverend Gary Davis
Reverend Gary Davis
American blues and gospel singer and guitarist
4
Happy Traum
Happy Traum
American musician
5
Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Bascom Lamar Lunsford
American musician and lawyer
6
Mark Spoelstra
Mark Spoelstra
American singer-songwriter
7
Peter La Farge
Peter La Farge
American singer-songwriter
8
Etta Baker
Etta Baker
American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer
9
Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger
American singer
10
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
American singer and guitarist
11
Cisco Houston
Cisco Houston
American musician (1918-1961)
12
Rod MacDonald
Rod MacDonald
American musician
13
Sammy Walker
Sammy Walker
American singer-songwriter
14
Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
American singer-songwriter and folk musician
15
Roscoe Holcomb
Roscoe Holcomb
American musician
16
David Blue
David Blue
American musician (1941-1982)
17
The Clancy Brothers
The Clancy Brothers
Irish folk band
18
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
American recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, author, artist and Nobel Laureate in 2016
19
New Lost City Ramblers
New Lost City Ramblers
musical group
20
Guy Carawan
Guy Carawan
American musician and musicologist
21
Victoria Spivey
Victoria Spivey
American blues singer and songwriter
22
Bob Gibson
Bob Gibson
American musician
23
Sis Cunningham
Sis Cunningham
American musician
24
Ed McCurdy
Ed McCurdy
American-Canadian musician
25
A. L. Lloyd
A. L. Lloyd
Folk musician and song-collector
26
Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
American protest singer and songwriter
27
Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
American folk singer and singer-songwriter
28
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
English folk singer, songwriter, communist, labour activist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer (1915-1989)
Intro
American musician
Record Labels
Music

Paul Clayton (born Paul Clayton Worthington; March 3, 1931 – March 30, 1967) was an American folksinger and folklorist who was prominent in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

A graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned a master's degree in folklore, Clayton specialized in traditional music, primarily New England sea shanties and ballads as well as Appalachian songs. He became interested in the first of these as a youngster and began playing guitar as a teen. While attending college, he expanded his interests to include the music of Virginia and the surrounding states. Within a short time after leaving college, he began recording. His first releases were for a small specialty record company, but in 1956 he joined Folkways Records, the day's leading folk music label. He recorded six solo albums for Folkways from 1956 to 1958, issued albums for a few specialty labels, moved to another prominent folk label, Elektra Records, for two albums in 1958–59, and collaborated with artists such as Jean Ritchie and Dave Van Ronk on other releases. He made his last recording in 1965.

As much a scholar as a musician, Clayton began collecting songs at a young age in his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. At the university, he studied under a professor who was a leading folklorist. Soon he was combing the hills and valleys of Virginia and surrounding states for songs that formed the region's musical heritage. In making field recordings, he "discovered" Etta Baker and Hobart Smith, homespun musicians who have come to be regarded as all-time greats.

Clayton became a prominent figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City during the early 1960s. He was close with artists such as Dave Van Ronk and Liam Clancy and was also a mentor and friend of Bob Dylan during the first years of Dylan's career. A song Clayton wrote was allegedly "borrowed" by Dylan in 1962 as the basis for one of his most famous tunes, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right". The resulting lawsuits by their record companies were settled out of court, and the two remained friends for several years afterwards.

Clayton was beset with personal problems in his mid-30s, including frustrations with his career, doubts arising from his homosexuality, manic depression, drug abuse, and a related arrest. He committed suicide in 1967.