[4Runner]

Wasn’t “The Hungry i” in San Francisco?

[impactplayer]

If you like the Kingston Trio you might also like the Whiskey Hill Singers, featuring Dave Guard and their string bass player, along with Judy Hensky. Only cut one album, but it is really great.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

It is totally bizarre how popular music has changed. Kingston trio was mainstream on the radio. I remember buying Frank Sinatra 45s—he was mainstream.

I credit the transition point to the Beatles. They were the marker between traditional pop music and rebellious nihilistic, hateful music. Not most of the Beatles music , but what followed them got progressively more angry and mean spirited.

Country music is even worse. I don't know what year country music died, maybe around 1975 or 1976. It slowly morphed into rock and roll pop. No more Porter and Dolly or Pretty Miss Norma Jean. No more Skeeter Davis, or Dottie West, or Bobby Bare, or George Jones or Hank Snow or … or … or …
 

[Bringbackthedraft]

But unfortunately it tells me how much of the America I grew up in and worked in is totally gone. .................................I still haven’t caught up, I still listen to the Ink Spots and the Big Band era singers.

[fidelis]

I have about 4000 songs on my playlist too, but virtually none of them are after 1999. For me, they pretty much stopped making decent music of any type.

Younger people tell me, "No, there's lot's of good music being made, you just have to look for it." Well, I figure if I have to go looking for good music, it must be pretty scarce if it exists at all. I tell those same people, "OK, I'm open to new things-- maybe you can recommend some good music to me." But they never can.

[Tax-chick]

The Kingston Trio is coming to Charlotte this fall (or maybe spring). They must either be a “legacy” group or a zillion years old!

[Hot Tabasco]

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Love, love, love the Kingston Trio’s version of “They Call the Wind Maria” from “the Hungry I”

[ssaftler]

As it was when the Kingston Trio started a few of days ago.

To paraphrase the famous "MTA" song:

Will it ever return?
No, America will never return
And its fate will be unlearned
(Shame and scandal)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Kingston Trio are still one of my favorite groups.
Perry Como
Cab Calloway
Artie Shaw
Glen Miller
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Big bands still RULE in my house between the great operas and symphonies.

[fella]

To show my age the first concert I attended was the Kingston Trio at Catholic University in D.C..

[beebuster2000]

try listening to old jose jimenez cuts if you want to hear something that is really out of date, and frankly, should be in my view.

[sphinx]

"Popular music" in its classic form began to die in the 1920's with phonographs that produced listenable recorded music, and radio. Prior to that point, if you wanted music, you by and large made it yourself. And people did. After radio and recorded music, however, popular music became a consumer good, like soap, deodorant, or sneakers.

Something as fundamental as the underlying musical culture doesn't die overnight. People alive in the 1920's did not realize they were at the top of a long slippery slope. They continued to have deep roots in the traditional music world, and they passed this along to their kids, who were at least learning the old songs even if they spent most of their time listening to records or the radio. Those of us born in the 1950's were probably at the tail end of the decline curve. We still learned a fair sampling of American classics -- mostly drawn from the traditional and folk music tradition -- in school. Today's kids get almost none of this.

If you doubt this, take a look at the songs schoolchildren are taught today. I'll bet almost none of them come from the old time Americana list. A lot of them will be internationalist and third world in origin. And none of it will be tunes that kids actually remember, will want to remember, or will ever sing again once their school musical show is over. The kids will all have extensive favorites lists, of course, and these tunes will be almost entirely pop hits of the last ten years. A very few sophisticates might have warmed to classic rock. None will have a musical orientation that extends back beyond that, unless their parents are traditional music fans.

A group like the Kingston Trio represented the last afterglow of a dying tradition. One can still find traditional music, of course, but it is just one more exotic genre among many, and it is no longer taken for granted or taught. Middle and high school kids today don't even know the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Dixie, or Shenandoah, Yankee Doodle, Home on the Range, any Stephen Foster songs, any Civil War songs, etc. We have suppressed our own musical heritage.

It's really pretty simple. The great old songs reflected a tradition in which people made their own music. The tunes are accessible. They don't require professional voices or elaborate instrumentation or studio effects. You can sing along with them and, with a little practice, actually do a pretty good job.

[Gay State Conservative]

Since I discovered that out regional library system has just about every CD ever made and,at the same time,having discovered the magic of CD burners I've amassed a music collection of about 5,500 songs.About 80-85% of them are from the 60's...rock,pop,easy listening,a little country,folk (including the Kingston Trio) and other stuff as well.About 5% is from the 50's..early pop/rock and easy listening (much of it my parents' music).Another 5% is 80's pop/rock and then there's other stuff.

I don't think I have 20 songs that were made after 1990.

But you're right about the Kingston Trio and about music in general.At least 99.98% of the "hits" released since 1990 have been absolute swill.

[Excellence]

I had the hungry i album, damn hear wore it out. I don’t remember that.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Lead singer of the Kingston Trio from 1961 to 1967, the late John Stewart’s 1979 solo album, “Bombs Away Dream Babies” is an awesome listen. Being backed up by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on most songs didn’t hurt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P5mhmbFMh8&list=PLOtylfD3ZrnT5pcr7i_JFuZ0_ygwNTpBU

[vetvetdoug]

Yes, the KT were great. Bob Shane is the only original left but the reincarnation of men that played with the original members is still touring and sound like the original. I first saw the KT at Yokota Japan at the NCO Club as my Father knew I was a rabid fan and slipped me in a side entrance as a seven year old to see them. They were there when the Beatles came to Capital Records and were on the sidelines at many historic musical events. They were the first group to win a Grammy for Country/Western Music for their song, “Tom Dooley” because the Grammys didn't have a category for the song. Country music excludes them completely in their history at the CMHOF.