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| musical groups established in 1957 | |
| american folk musical groups | |
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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 . 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 . 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, ", 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 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 . 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.Ritchie Unterberger in liner notes for ''Dave Guard & The Whiskey Hill Singers'' 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. For a number of years in the 1980s Reynolds, one of the original three members, rejoined Shane until he re-retired in 1998. 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 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. DISCOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY Capitol Records Releases: Albums
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
Tetragrammaton Records Release: Album
Longines Symphonette Release: Album
GZS Productions Tape/CD Release
Nautilus Records Release: Album
Xerxes Records Releases: Albums Folk Era/Rediscover Records Releases: Albums/CDs
Vanguard Records Release: CD
Silverwolf Records Release: Original CD
Collector's Choice Music Releases: Original CDs Shout Factory Release: CD
Kingston Trio Productions Release: CD 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
Top 40 Hits In Chronological Order:
Other well-known songs frequently performed by The Kingston Trio:
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION The Kingston Trio were 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''. REFERENCES
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