The Kingston Trio | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Formed in 1957 in San Francisco, the folk group called the Kingston Trio took the country by storm with its three-part harmonies and energetic, humorous approach to folk music. Courting a popaudience and sporting striped shirts, neatly pressed chinos, and an upbeat, Sing-Out! attitude, the group originally consisted of guitarists Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds and banjoist Dave Guard (he was replaced by songwriter/rock artist John Stewart in 1961). Backed by Guard's five-string banjo, an acoustic guitar, and congas, the Trio's first big hit was "The Ballad of Tom Dooley," a harmonized saga of a condemned man awaiting execution, based on an old song of the Civil War era. The recording sold three million copies and won the Kingston Trio its first Grammy. Among its numerous albums, several of which now count among the best selling records of the 1950s and 1960s, five of its first six would make it to the Number One spot.

The Kingston Trio began as a casual association between Shane, Reynolds, and Guard. After working up their repertoire at local bars, the trio got its first major gig: a one-week stint at the Purple Onion, a favorite nightspot of San Francisco's college crowd during the late 1950s (Guard was a student at Stanford University when the group formed). Quickly signed to Capitol Records, the group released its first record in early 1958 and went on to release 29 other recordings, including a 1962 tribute to the presidency of John F. Kennedy titled New Frontier. The Kingston Trio's appearance at the groundbreaking 1959 Newport Folk Festival was documented in its album, Live at Newport. Until the British Invasion in the 1960s, the Trio was a mainstay of the U.S. pop charts. In addition to being the first musical group to have sales of LP records outnumber singles, 14 of the Kingston Trio's albums made it to the Top Ten spot, with five of those reaching Number One and seven charting for 12 months or more.

Punctuated by the twang of the banjo, the music of the Kingston Trio had a danceable feel that captured the hearts of pop fans and turned the band into one of the first crossover groups to bridge the folk and pop genres. Because it made three-part harmony and acoustic guitar look so simple, the Trio sparked a wave of interest in folk music across the country and have been credited with helping usher in the American Folk Revival of the 1960s. As strong as its fan-base was, the Kingston Trio also had its detractors. The group's overt commercialism stood in direct contrast to the back-to-the-earth values associated with folk music and embodied by groups like the Weavers, and the group was reviled in many folk-music circles. "I don't think we ever took ourselves seriously enough to think that we belonged to folk music," Stewart told an interviewer in 1966. Rather than stick to the traditional musical interpretations extolled by purists, the Trio intentionally sought new input for its music, adapting such diverse ethnic music traditions as Appalachian Mountain melodies and Calypso into its own clean-cut, upbeat style.

Children of the Morning (1966) was the last album recorded by the Kingston Trio. The times indeed were a-changing, and the rock-folk synthesis the Trio catalyzed in the 1950s was, by the late 1960s, the province of groups like Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Association. Although the band officially broke up in 1967, Shane continued to tour with musicians Jim Connor and Pat Horine as the New Kingston Trio into the 1990s. By the end of that decade, Shane, Nick Reynolds, and George Grove were being listed as members of the group. Stewart went on to record with Stevie Hicks and Lindsey Buckingham of the rock group Fleetwood Mac. Guard, who had left due to personality clashes with Shane and Reynolds, formed the Whiskeyhill Singers in the early 1960s.

Blake, Benjamin, Jack Rubeck, and Allan Shaw. The Kingston Trio on Record. Naperville, Illinois, Kingston Korner, 1986.

Cantwell, Robert. When We Were Good: The Folk Revival. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1966.

Cavendish, Marshall, Dictionary of Popular Music. New York, Marshall Cavendish, 1988.

Lawless, Ray M. Folksingers and Folksongs in America: A Handbook. New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1965.

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