Group 4 : Aurelio Dregni Chelsey Hancock Yi Zhang Nathan Severiano Jake Kelly
The Kingston Trio is one of biggest American folk and pop music group started in San Francisco in late 1950s. The group's success and influence transcended its actual sales. They built up for folk music. Hit Albums <The Kingston Trio> Released: June 1958 Hit recording : Tom Dooley Sold over 3 million <...From the Hungry i> Released: January 1959 <The Last Month of the Year> Released: October 1960 <Back In Town> Released: June 1964
The group was founded in Palo Alto, CA, by Dave Guard(1934-1991), a graduate student from Stanford University, and two of his close friends, Bob Shane (born 1934) and Nick Reynolds (1933-2008), from Menlo College 1957, Voyle Gilmore, Capitol Records producer, saw them play at the Purple Onion ( a leading night spot in San Francisco) then signed a seven-year contract with Trio. 1958, <Tom Dooley> from their first album, picked by a DJ in Lake salt city who began playing it, become a single in July of 1958 it spent October through January in the Billboard Top Ten, selling over three million. In the late 50s, the Kingston Trio immensely popular with almost every segment of the mass audience, most of all among college students, who were attracted in their mix of folk songs, humor, and good spirits.
1961, The Kingston Trio faces their first major crisis. Because of growing differences over the musical direction of the group, Dave Guard left. Guard was the one who knew a lot of the folk songs, especially the songs from other countries, that the Trio had performed and recorded. However, the new member John Stewart joined them at the same year. 1962, there was a split in the folk music audience and community. With the college audience gone, all that the Trio could find as listeners were the folkies. 1963, their sales plummeted, and the arrival of the Beatles and the British Invasion in early 1964 sealed their fate. In June 17, Trio's farewell gig was held at the Hungry I in San Francisco.
The Kingston Trio made use of the musical ability they already had. They knew how to sing harmonies together, and they each knew how to play a string instrument: Dave Guard played banjo, Bob Shane played guitar, and Nick Reynolds played guitar with his experience playing ukelele. They pioneered folk music, with ideas from Harry Belefonte's Calypso work. They also developed a stage presence similar to a comedy routine, with comical banter using characters based on their own personalities.
The Kingston Trio were one of the first folk groups that became widely popular. They are cited for starting the urban folk revival, developing folk-rock, and bringing to college students. Their occasional use of political lyrics also paved the way for the political protest songs of the 60's. For instance, their song "Where have all the flowers gone?" was their first overtly political piece. It resonated well with youth just as the antiwar movement was begining, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Artists like Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Bob Dylan used this momentum as they moved into more political and deeper songs.
The Trio's instrument lineup of 2 guitars and a banjo is reminiscent of C&W groups of the 50s, but Nick Reynolds' playing of his guitar like he learned the Ukelele created a new sound that contributed to the guitar playing of the future. They also created an audience for folk music. Before them, few would pay to listen to a few college students playing guitar and banjo and singing harmonies of folk music. This was reserved for C&W audiences before them. Finally, without the Kingston Trio, record companies would not have enev considered unknown artists like Bob Dylan, the Weaver's Pete Seegar, or Peter, Paul, and Mary.
The Kingston Trio made their rise in a time when Rock & Roll was on the rise, and folk music was just breaking out of a slump. Each original member of the group had different musical influences, in particular; --Dave Guard and Bob Shane were particularly influenced by Hawaiian music with soft guitar and ukulele. --Nick Reynolds was also inspired by worldly instruments, having learned the ukulele and Bongos at a young age. --Later member, John Stewart, was inspired by artists like Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.
The Weavers may be the largest individual influence on the formation of the Kingston Trio. The group was formed in 1948 and was popular through the early 1950 s. They were a folk music quartet, that also sang blues, gospel, and children's music. Their style inspired the commercial folk boom of the 1950 s.
Music Historian Richie Unterberger says the impat of the Trio made acoustic folk rock commercially viable, and paved the way for singer-songwriter, folk rock, and Americana artists. The banjo/ guitar combination had an immediate impact on the group Peter, Paul, and Mary, who use the same fundamental folk concept.
The influence of the Trio goes far beyond the early folk music years. Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Al Jardine of the Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane, Jimmy Buffet, and even pop groups ABBA and the Bee Gees have all cited the Kingston Trio as influences. The late 50 s revival of folk music also helped lead to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and The Byrds coming about in the 60 s.
American folk music quartet in the Greenwich Village area of New York city. Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hayes, and Fred Hellerman. Musical influences were blues, gospel, children s songs, labor songs, and ballads. String-band style inspired the commercial entity of the folk boom that followed them including The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary folk bands.
Four Years strong with over 4 million in record sales Hays and Seeger worked on peace campaigns and demonstrations for human rights, civil rights, and workers rights during WWII During the 1950 s Red Scare, the band had affiliation with the Communist Party, they testified, but their popularity became meager and they disbanded.
The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll called Peter, Paul and Mary "the most popular acoustic folk music group of the 1960's. They were quoted saying, We were very much The Weaver s children. Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers made their debut in 1961 at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. On the strength of this performance, they were signed to a recording contract with Warner Brothers. During that decade, they produced 11 albums, 5 of which became million sellers. And they scored 12 hit singles, including the classic children's song, "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and "Leaving on a Jet Plane," a ballad written by John Denver. The group brought folk music to a new prominence in the post-mccarthy era, putting songs about politics and morality on the radio amid the syrupy boy-girl love songs that dominated when they began playing together in the early 1960s.
Released in May 1962, their first titled album included their rendition of Pete Seeger's song, "If I Had a Hammer," a hit that was the first record to bring protest music to a mainstream audience. 1963, their version of "Blowin' in the Wind" became a hit, and the first commercially successful recording of a song written by Bob Dylan. As their fame grew, Peter, Paul and Mary mixed music with political and social activism. In 1963 the trio marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama and Washington, D.C. The three participated in countless demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. And they sang at the 1969 March on Washington of which Peter helped organize.
Folk Songs and Blues Hit Album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan (1963) contained original material and gained attention of the Folk community. Emerged as a major star of the folk movement in 1964 when he released, The Times They Are a-changin. Acoustic guitar and harmonica Used dry wit and sarcasm in his lyrics Became known first in MPLS Dinky Town area with Woody Guthrie(he attended the U of MN, very short lived), and followed Guthrie out to New York, The Greenwich Village.
A new style of music was born, folk rock, with electric guitar in 1965 (along side The Byrds). Like a Rolling Stone (1965) and new album, Blonde on Blonde (1966) combined the two rock and folk styles; it was rock s first double album. His lyrics brought symbolism, internal ironies, thought provoking messages, dry wit and sarcasm, surrealism and graceful flow. They were the most sophisticated since the beginning of Rock and Roll, (Stuessy and Lipscomb).
While most of the Kinston Trio s musical influences came along earlier in their lifetimes from their upbringings, the political and social events that took place during their musical era had a great impact on some of their later music. Two important social and political movements that affected the country and the music of the Kinston Trio was the precursor to the Anti-War Movement of the early 1960-75, as well as the Civil Rights Movement of 1955-65.
Although the Vietnam War, along with the huge anti war protests, didn t take place till 1965, the social and political atmosphere of the youth during the early 1960 s was becoming charged. With the Kingston s Trio cover of Where Have All the Flowers Gone, their apolitical position had transitioned to an antiwar position. The songs lyrics speak about the disappearance of the country s men leaving for the army and how they return dead to their graves. Excerpt of the lyrics: Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing. Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago. Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, ev ry one. Will they ever learn? Will they ever learn?
The Civil Rights Movement was at peak during the years of 1955-1965, with landmark events including, the Montgomery Bus Boycotts (1955-56), Freedom Rides of 1961, the March on Washington of 1963, Civil Rights act of 1964, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was in 1963 when the Kingston Trio released their recording of Road to Freedom, Which expressed the hopes and ambitions of the blossoming civil rights movements. Excerpt from the lyrics: And we re comin one by one. You didn t see us two by two. Ev ry time you turn around another s comin through. So we ll sing it long and proud so ev ryone will know that the road to freedom is a long, long way to go.
1. Allan Shaw, the Kingston Trio, http://www.folkera.com/ktrio/bio.html 2. Eder, B., (2012). The Kingston Trio. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-kingston-trio-p2038/biography 3. Rolling Stones. Peter, Paul and Mary discography. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/peterpaulandmary/discography. 4. Ruehl, Kim. The Weavers. http://folkmusic.about.com/od/artistsaz/p/ TheWeavers.htm. 5. Stuessy, J., and Lipscomb, S.D. (2013). Rock and roll: Its history and stylistic development, 7th edition. New York, NY: Pearson. ISBN: 978-0-205-24697-7. 6. The New York Times. Peter, Paul and Mary Return in Concert of Peace and Protest. 1970. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html? res=f00c15fe3b5c1b7493c2a81783d85f448785f9. 7. Eder, B. (n.d.). The kingston trio: Biography. Retrieved from http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p2038/biography 8. Cozzens, L. (1998, June 22). The civil rights movement 1955-1965. Retrieved from http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/index.html 9. Barringer, M., & Wells, T. (1999, June 22). The anti war movement in the united states. Retrieved from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html