Troubadours of Folk is a five volume series of compact discs released by Rhino Records in 1992. The series documents several decades worth of "contemporary" folk music. The first three volumes focus on the American "folk revival" of the 1960s while the final two volumes focus on singer-songwriter music of the 1970s and 1980s. Because of "licensing restrictions" no songs by Bob Dylan could be included in the anthology. The series tends to focus on American folk music although not exclusively. Rhino later released a series of volumes titled Troubadours of British Folk.

Troubadours of the Folk Era Vol. 1

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Troubadours of the Folk Era Vol. 2

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Troubadours of the Folk Era Vol. 3: The Groups

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Troubadours Of Folk Vol. 4: Singer-Songwriters Of The '70s

The fourth volume covers what is described as the "heyday" of the singer-songwriter movement.

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In most cases the performer is also the songwriter.

Troubadours Of Folk Vol. 5: Singer-Songwriters Of The '80s

The final volume of the collection documents another revival-of-sorts that took place in the 1980s by singer-songwriters influenced as much by 1970s punk rock as 1960s folk. As the liner notes by Barry Alfonso explain: "Of course, folk as a genre had never gone away, just slipped out of the limelight. The rediscovery of the acoustic tradition by punks and other upstarts was newsworthy to rock critics and other arbiters of hipness. But trendy or not, the folk music community had never ceased to exist, and some of its members were dubious about the recent converts asking for admission. These questions about commitment to traditions were part of the same folk sectarian debate that put Bob Dylan in the doghouse after he went electric back in '65." To avoid arguments over the definition of "folk" the collections attempts to cover "as many segments of '80s folkdom as possible, including those that contested each other's legitimacy."

Track listing

Songs written by the performer unless otherwise indicated.