From the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village to the stage of Woodstock, folksingers became a powerful cultural force in the 1960s, Mixing music and politics, tradition and innovation, romance and righteousness, these men and women were outspoken voices for their generation, each with a story to tell.

In The Bleecker Street Tapes, a collection of intimate profiles and essays, veteran music journalist Bruce Pollock, a Village resident and clubgoer during its heyday, documents folk music's evolution from passing the hat to topping the charts.