Considering their time with the Almanacs, and the rise of governmental oversight amid the McCarthy hearings, the Weavers made a concerted effort to divorce themselves from politics. They recorded songs like "Goodnight Irene" that had no political bent to them at all. They were backed up by ornate orchestrations and, while their songs were decidedly folk, the arrangements were decidedly pop-oriented, which introduced a completely new audience to the folk music fold.
Following the Weavers were the Kingston Trio—a group from San Francisco who popularized un-political folk music by intersplicing their performances with jokes and stories. There was a cheesiness to the Trio that spun off into several other similar folk-pop groups in the same era.
Meanwhile, probably in response to the slew of folksingers (including the Weavers) who were being blacklisted for being or associating with Communists, this period saw folk artists veering away from the precedent set by the Almanacs and their alumni.
