By Oregon Coast TODAY
NEWPORT — Fans of folk icons The Kingston Trio can re-discover the group’s timeless music all over again on Wednesday, April 12, at the Newport Performing Arts Center.
Musicians continuing the trio’s legacy will play for one night only, giving coastal audiences the chance to board a living time machine and journey back to the pop-folk boom of mid-century America.
The Kingston Trio started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with the original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds. Guard and Shane had been friends since junior high school at the Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, where both had learned to play ukulele.
The group chose the name “Kingston Trio” partly because it evoked the calypso music popular at the time coming primarily from Kingston, Jamaica.
Using banjos and acoustic guitars, and drawing on the country’s rich folk heritage, the trio skyrocketed to fame following the release of their self-titled album and its hit song, “Tom Dooley.” That recording sold more than three million copies and earned the trio its first Grammy, awarded in the Country and Western Performance category.
The group quickly became a cultural phenomenon, with record-breaking concert draws, massive album sales and, at one point, no less than four records in Billboard’s Top Ten at the same time, an accomplishment yet to be eclipsed.
The trio’s timeless, chart-topping songs such as the cover of the Pete Seeger song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” have entertained audiences for more than 60 years.
As times have changed, so have the musicians. The current trio of Buddy Woodward, Mike Marvin and Tim Gorelangton, have special ties and intrinsic links to the original group. Woodward performed with longtime member Grove and Gorelangton, a close friend since boyhood, is one of the few musicians outside the trio who has recorded with Reynolds.
Taken in by the Reynolds family as a teenager, Marvin learned his music ropes at the foot of Reynolds and was present at Kingston Trio rehearsals when the group was the biggest act in the world.
Enjoy being taken back in time with the sing-along songs of a bygone era and even enjoy some newer hits, when the Kingston Trio hits the stage.
The concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Newport Performing Arts Center. Tickets, $50 to $70, are available at coastarts.org.
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