From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group. They helped launch the folk revival of the late-1950s to early 1960s, and continued to thrive as an acoustic group despite the increasing dominance of rock and roll.

Contents 1 Formation and Early Success 2 The '60s and now 3 "Scotch and Soda" 4 Discography and Videography 5 Awards and recognition 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Videos

The Kingston Trio was formed in 1957 in the Palo Alto, California, area by Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds, who were just out of college. Greatly influenced by The Weavers, the calypso sounds of Harry Belafonte, and other semi-popular folk artists such as the Gateway Singers and the Tarriers. They were discovered playing at a Menlo College area club called the Cracked Pot in northern California by Frank Werber, a local publicist then working at the Hungry i. He became their manager, and secured them a one-shot deal with Capitol Records. Bob Shane would later tell concert audiences that the group considered itself at first to be primarily a calypso group, and therefore named itself after the capital of Jamaica.

Their first hit was a catchy rendition of an old-time folk song, "Tom Dooley," (based upon the life of the tragic figure, Tom Dula) which went gold in 1958. It was so popular that it entered popular culture as a catchphrase: Ella Fitzgerald, for example, parodies it during her recorded version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." It won them the first Grammy award for Best Country & Western Performance in 1959. The next year, they won the first Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category for the album The Kingston Trio at Large.

At one point in the early 1960s The Kingston Trio had four albums at the same time among the Top 10 selling albums, a record unmatched for nearly 40 years. In spite of this, they had a relatively small number of hit singles.

The group's music was simple and accessible, with much use of tight vocal harmony, signature riffs (often played on the banjo), and repetitive choruses. Capitol producer Voyle Gilmore[1] enhanced their vocal sound to great effect with reverb and the relatively new process of doubletracking, in which the performers sang along with their own pre-recorded part to produce a stronger sound than with a single voice, in part due to a natural time gap of a fraction of a second between the original recording and the overdubbed part. At first pairs of tape recorders were used, then later multitrack recording machines, to produce the effect.

Several of the group's most popular songs were humorous numbers, such as “Tijuana Jail”, the tale of an ill-fated trip to Mexico, and “MTA”, the saga of a man who "never returned” from the Boston subway system. A concert favorite was the darkly humorous “Merry Minuet”, a tuneful meditation on the prospect of nuclear war.

Guard left the band in 1961 as part of a disagreement over its musical direction and with the way their publishing earnings were being handled.^[1] He formed the group Whiskey Hill Singers, and was replaced by John Stewart, who led the group through several more years of popularity until the arrival of The Beatles and British invasion rock bands pushed them from the charts. Guard died of lymphatic cancer in 1991.

The Trio disbanded after a final performance at the hungry i, June 17, 1967.

Shane, the lone member to resist the break-up of the Trio, started a new group, aptly named, "The New Kingston Trio," in 1969. Eventually, Shane was successful in reaching a contractual agreement with his former partners, Guard, Reynolds, and Werber, to secure and license once again, the original name, "The Kingston Trio" (unencumbered by the adjective "New"), in 1976.(Blake et al. 1986.) Shane still owns the property today, 2007.

Bob Haworth, a member of The Brothers Four from 1970 to 1985, sang with the Trio from 1985 until 1988, filling in for a hospitalized Roger Gambill and eventually replacing him. In 1988, Nick Reynolds, one of the original three members, returned to the group, with Bob Haworth occasionally filling in for him. In 1999 Nick Reynolds retired and Bob Haworth returned to the Trio until 2005.

In 2005, Shane retired from the group due to health problems. He was replaced by Bill Zorn (The Limeliters), who had been with Shane in The New Kingston Trio. Bob Haworth left the group to be replaced by Rick Dougherty, who also had been a member of The Limeliters.

As of 2006, The Kingston Trio consists of George Grove, Bill Zorn and Rick Dougherty.

Through the years, the most requested song for The Kingston Trio was "Scotch and Soda," which was always performed as a solo number by Bob Shane. The trio discovered this song through Tom Seaver's parents who had first heard it when on their honeymoon. One member of the trio was dating Seaver's older sister at that time, and heard the song on a visit to the Seaver home. Although it is credited to Dave Guard, the trio never did discover the real songwriter's name, though they searched for years.

Since Shane's retirement, the song is only rarely performed live, and sometimes as a solo by one of the current members and at others in an audience sing-along. Shane himself has performed it recently a few times as a "guest" of the trio.

Capitol Records Releases: Albums

• The Kingston Trio 1958
• ...from the Hungry i 1959
• Stereo Concert 1959
• The Kingston Trio At Large 1959
• Here we Go Again 1959
• Sold Out 1960
• String Along 1960
• The Last Month of the Year 1960
• Make Way 1961
• Goin' Places 1961
• Close Up 1961
• College Concert 1962
• Something Special 1962
• New Frontier 1962
• #16 1963
• Sunny Side 1963
• Time to Think 1963
• Back in Town 1964

Capitol Records also released vinyl albums of The Best of the Kingston Trio, Vols I, II, and III between 1961 and 1966, a "duophonic" reissue of cuts from the first two albums named The Kingston Trio Encores in 1961, and a number of CD compilations and re-issues in the 1980s and 1990s.

Decca Records Releases: Albums

• Nick Bob John 1964
• Stay Awhile 1965
• Somethin' Else 1965
• Children of the Morning 1966

Tetragrammaton Records Release: Album

• Once Upon a Time (double album) 1969

Longines Symphonette Release: Album

• The World Needs A Melody 1973

GZS Productions Tape/CD Release

• Live At The Crazy Horse 1976

Nautilus Records Release: Album

• Aspen Gold 1979

Xerxes Records Releases: Albums

• 25 Years Non-Stop 1982
• Looking For The Sunshine 1983

Folk Era/Rediscover Records Releases: Albums/CDs

• Rediscover The Kingston Trio 1985
• Hidden Treasures 1987
• Everybody's Talking 1989
• An Evening With The Kingston Trio 1992
• The New Kingston Trio: The Lost Masters 1969-1972 1997
• Snapshot 2006

Vanguard Records Release: CD

• The Kingston Trio Live At Newport 1994

Silverwolf Records Release: Original CD

• Live At The Crazy Horse 1995

Collector's Choice Music Releases: Original CDs

• The Lost 1967 Album 2007
• The Final Concert 2007

Shout Factory Release: CD

• The Essential Kingston Trio 2006

Kingston Trio Productions Release: CD

• Still Goin' Places 2005
• The First Fifty Years 2007

There are in addition literally scores of vinyl, tape, and CD compilations and reissues by a multitude of companies in the U.S., Germany, Japan, and elsewhere.

Video Releases

• The Kingston Trio and Friends Reunion (WhiteStar Video, 1982)
• An Evening With The Kingston Trio (Rhino Video, 1989)
• The Kingston Trio 45th Anniversary Tribute Concert (EDI, 2002)
• Wherever We May Go (Shout Factory, 2006)
• The Kingston Trio: Fifty Years Of Having Fun (EDI, 2006)
• Live At The Yuma (Kingston Trio Productions, 2007)
• Young Men In A Hurry [TV Series Pilot] (Paramount, 2007)

Top 40 Hits In Chronological Order:

• "Tom Dooley", #1 in 1958
• "The Tijuana Jail", #12 in 1959
• "M.T.A.", #15 in 1959
• "A Worried Man", #20 in 1959
• "El Matador", #32 in 1960
• "Bad Man Blunder", #37 in 1960
• "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", #21 in 1962
• "Greenback Dollar", #21 in 1963
• "Reverend Mr. Black", #8 in 1963
• "Desert Pete", #33 in 1963

Other well-known songs frequently performed by The Kingston Trio:

• "Scarlet Ribbons"
• "This Land Is Your Land"
• "Lemon Tree"
• "Scotch and Soda"
• "The Long Black Veil"
• "The World Needs a Melody"
• "Raspberries, Strawberries"
• "500 Miles"
• "Ballad of the Shape of Things"
• "Reuben James"
• "Zombie Jamboree"
• "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm"
• "The Merry Little Minuet"

The Kingston Trio was inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000.

The Kingston Trio won a Grammy for "Best Country And Western Performance" in 1959 for the single of "Tom Dooley." At the time, no "Folk" category existed. When a "Best Performance - Folk" category was initiated in 1960, the Trio won its second Grammy (the first ever awarded in this category) for its album The Kingston Trio At Large.

• Blake, B., Rubeck, J., Shaw, A. (1986) The Kingston Trio On Record. Kingston Korner Inc, ILL: ISBN 0-9614594-0-9.

• The Kingston Trio Official Page
• Interviews with Voyle Gilmore, Trio's producer 1957-1964
• 'The Kingston Trio' Vocal Group Hall of Fame Page
• The Kingston Trio Liner Notes
• Echo Magazine review Coo Coo-U
• Life Magazine Cover
• Young Men In A Hurry
• Kingston Trio indepth time line
• The Kingston Trio Place, fan page.
• Folk U.S.A, many archived, vintage video and audio clips.

• Kingston Trio And Related Videos On YouTube: Index
• Numerous archived video clips of the Kingston Trio and John Stewart