Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio Passes Away

Nick Reynolds, who was one of the founding members of the Kingston Trio, passed away yesterday at the age of 75. He had been in a San Diego hospital for a number of weeks before his family made the decision to take him off life support.

Reynolds first met Trio member Bob Shane while attending Menlo College and the two would play as a duo with Reynolds on guitar and Shane on bongos at various fraternity functions. The soon added Joe Gannon on bass and Barbara Bogue on vocals to form the group Dave Guard and the Calypsonians.

Reynolds left the group for a short time after graduation and the remaining musicians reformed as the Kingston Quartet. After little success, Reynolds returned and, along with Shane's friend Dave Guard, they formed the Kingston Trio.

The group's initial success was at San Francisco's Purple Onion, where the started out opening for Phyllis Diller but eventually graduated to their own headlining spot. They played at the club throughout the latter part of 1957 and were signed to Capitol records.

Their self-named first album ended up being a smash, going to number one on the Billboard Album charts and kicking off the folk music revival which would spawn numerous groups and solo artists throughout the early-60's. The album also contained their first number one single, Tom Dooley, which started a string of ten top 40 singles for the group between 1958 and 1963.

Dave Guard left the group in 1961 to explore folk music more deeply and Shane and Reynolds brought in John Stewart who had been a member of the Cumberland Three. The group had already recorded two of Stewart's songs and his personality and voice blended well with the two remaining members.

In 1963, the group heard a young Peter, Paul and Mary sing the Pete Seeger song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and recorded their own version which placed well on the pop charts and even better on the new Easy Listening tally.

With the onset of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, the popularity of folk music started to fade, but the trio kept going until they decided to call it quits in 1967, playing a farewell gig at the Hungry I on June 17. Guard stayed busy with music and Stewart went on to have a very successful solo career, writing Daydream Believer for the Monkees and eventually having his own hits like Gold. Reynolds, though, move to Oregon where he was a sheep rancher and opened a theater.

In 1981, the group reformed with all of its members over the years for a successful PBS special. Various versions of the group continued and, in the late-80's, Reynolds rejoined the group where he stayed until retiring in 1999.

The Kingston Trio ended up being one of the most influential artists of the last fifty years, ushuring in the folk music craze in the same way that the Beach Boys brought in surf and the Beatles started the British invasion.

Notable Kingston Trio singles:

Tom Dooley (1958, #1 Pop)
The Tijuana Jail (1959, #12 Pop)
M.T.A. (1959, #15 Pop)
A Worried Man (1959, #20 Pop)
Where Have All the Flowers Gone (1962, #21 Pop, #4 Adult Contemporary)
Greenback Dollar (1963, #21 Pop, #6 Adult Contemporary)
Reverend Mr. Black (1963, #8 Pop, #15 R&B)
Grammy Awards:

1958 Best Country & Western Performance - Tom Dooley
1959 Best Folk Performance - The Kingston Trio At Large

SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com