The Kingston Trio Biography, Photos and Posters

The Kingston Trio

Biography

Started: 1957
City and Country of Origin: Palo Alto, California
Music Training:
Awards: 2000 inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame; Grammy 1959 Best Performance - Folk, The Kingston Trio At Large; 1958 Best Country & Western Performance, "Tom Dooley"
Top Recordings: Tom Dooley," "The Tijuana Jail," "M.T.A.," "A Worried Man," "El Matador," "Bad Man Blunder," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "Greenback Dollar," "Reverend Mr. Black," "Desert Pete"
The Kingston Trio Biography: The Kingston Trio is an American folk group. They helped launch the folk revival of the early 1960s and continued to thrive despite the emergence of rock and roll.

The group was formed in 1957 in Palo Alto, California, by Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and Dave Guard, who were just out of college. they were 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 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, "Tom Dooley," was a catchy rendition of an old-time folk song which went gold in 1958. 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 enhanced their vocal sound with reverb and 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.

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. 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," in 1976. Shane still owns the property today, 2006.

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

Today's Kingston Trio lineup consists of: George Grove , Rick Doughertry , Bill Zorn. 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.

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