The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio is an American folk group. They helped launch the folk revival of the 1960s and continued to thrive despite the emergence of rock and roll.

Formation and Early Success

The Kingston Trio was formed in 1957 in the Palo Alto, California, area by Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and Dave Guard, 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 college club called the Cracked Pot 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.

Their first hit was a catchy rendition of an old-time folk song, "Tom Dooley", 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.

The '60s and Now

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.

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, 2006.

For a number of years in the 1980s Reynolds, one of the original three members, rejoined Shane.

In 2004 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.

In 2005 Bobby Haworth (a one-time member of The Brothers Four) 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. Bob Shane has said that this is the closest resembling group, sounding a lot like the original Guard, Shane, and Reynolds trio.

"Scotch and Soda"

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 the song 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 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 always as a solo by one of the current members. Shane himself has performed it recently a few times as a "guest" of the Trio.

Discography

Albums (1958-1966)

• 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
• Nick Bob John 1964
• Stay Awhile 1965
• Something Else 1965
• Children of the Morning 1966
• Once Upon a Time (double album) 1966

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

Source, The Kingston Trio Collectors Series, Capitol Records Inc., 1990.

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"

Awards & Recognition

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

Trivia

• In The Simpsons episode, "The Dad Who Knew Too Little", The Kingston Trio are listed number one on Mr. Burns' Nixon-esque enemies list.
• In the 1970s, The New London Trio (patterned after the music and format of The Kingston Trio) performed with guitar, upright bass, and banjo as a splinter group of The Idlers.
• Dave Guard died of leukemia in 1991.

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