“The Kingston Trio were tremendously influential, both on the public interest in folk music (their breakout song “Tom Dooley” sold over 3 million copies and they released five #1 and 14 top ten albums), turbocharging the folk-pop explosion of the late ’50s and early ‘60s, and on a great many musicians who followed. They picked up where the Weavers (Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman) left off following the blacklisting they suffered during McCarthyism, and paving the way for Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, and many other folk artists who rose to prominence between 1960 and 1965, when Dylan went electric. In his autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan said "I liked the Kingston Trio. Even though their style was polished and collegiate, I liked most of their stuff anyway,” a sentiment echoed by Baez who, in her memoir And A Voice to Sing With wrote “Before I turned into a snob and learned to look down upon all commercial folk music as bastardized and unholy, I loved the Kingston Trio. When I became one of the leading practitioners of 'pure folk,' I still loved them.”

They were clean-cut, collegiate and very popular. Some traditionalists looked down on them, but that was the “snob” attitude that Baez mentioned. Doc Watson, brilliant guitarist and a stalwart in any folk listing, commented "I’ll tell you who pointed all our noses in the right direction, even the traditional performers. They got us interested in trying to put the good stuff out there—the Kingston Trio. They got me interested in it!"

As for who they influenced, the list is very long and includes such artists as Lindsey Buckingham, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, Gram Parsons, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, The Beach Boys, Tony Trischka, Jefferson Airplane founding members Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, Richie Furay, Gene Clark, David Grisman, Tom Paxton, Harry Chapin, Tim Buckley, Steve Goodman, and Shawn Colvin. They made folk music commercially viable in the late 1950s, at one point being responsible for 15% of Capitol Records’ sales. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Kingston Trio were the bridge between the earlier generation of Woody Guthrie, the Almanac Singers, and the Weavers, and the emerging singer-songwriters of the 1960s.” - Ernie Black, Author currently working on a fantasy series. Poet, photographer, web developer. Man of many shadows. Music lover: folk/acoustic, 60s and 70s rock, post-bop and free jazz, world. From...

https://www.quora.com/How-influential-was-the-Kingston-Trio-for-folk-artists-that-followed-them#:~:text=Ernie%20Black,great%20many%20musicians%20who%20followed.