After military service in the US Army, Goldstein earned bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the City College of New York in 1949 and 1951 respectively.
[4] Whilst working as a statistician for Fairchild Productions, Goldstein developed his interest in folklife and particularly folksong of North American and the British Isles, becoming an important figure in the nascent folk music recording scene.
Lloyd, Jean Ritchie, Reverend Gary Davis, Sara Cleveland, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.
[8][9] The Clancy Brothers' albums introduced the guitar and the "ballad-group" sound into mainstream Irish folk music.
[4] Published as his first book in 1964, this work was widely translated and remained the standard text on its subject for decades.
[15] The American Folklore Society has created a scholarship fund in his honour, The Kenneth Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic Leadership.
[16] Goldstein’s collection of books and records is now housed at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture in Oxford, Mississippi and his collection of American broadsides and country-western folios is housed at the Middle Tennessee State University Center for Popular Music in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.