Samuel Robert Gibson (November 16, 1931 – September 28, 1996) was an American folk singer and a key figure in the folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His principal instruments were banjo and 12-string guitar. He introduced a then-unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade from 1956 to 1965. His best known album, Gibson & Camp at the Gate of Horn, was released in 1961. His songs have been recorded by, among others, The Limeliters, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Smothers Brothers, Phil Ochs, The Kingston Trio and Bob Dylan. His career was interrupted by his addiction to drugs and alcohol. After getting sober he attempted a comeback in 1978, but the musical scene had changed and his traditional style of folk music was out of favor with young audiences. He did, however, continue his artistic career with albums, musicals, plays, and television performances. In 1993, he was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and died of that disease on September 28, 1996, at the age of 64. Biography Gibson was born on November 16, 1931, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, between his older sister, Anne, and younger brother, Jim. He and his siblings grew up in various communities outside New York City – Tuckahoe, Yorktown Heights, and Tompkins Corners. His early interest in music was, primarily, vocal. He left high school in his senior year and hitchhiked around the country. Back in New York City in the late 1940s, Gibson took a job at a firm that taught speed reading, where he was responsible for sales and public relations. In 1952, he met and married his wife, Rose, who quickly bore three daughters – Barbara (who changed her name to Meridian Green), Pati, and Susan. In 1953, he met Pete Seeger, and helped him rebuild his house. So impressed was Gibson with Seeger and his music that he "took the money I had set aside for rent" (to Rose's chagrin) and bought a banjo. He quit his job, became immersed in the study of folk music, and taught himself to play the banjo over the next year. At the age of 22 he began performing at schools, ladies' social clubs, lounges, and cabarets in New York, Miami, Cleveland, and aboard cruise ships traveling to various Caribbean islands.