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HOME 30 October 2009 |
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- 50 Years On -
THE KINGSTON TRIO | |
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WILLIAMSPORT, PA - Fifty years ago, October 1959, American musical history was made. That month, with the release of their fourth album, “Here We Go Again,” The Kingston Trio simultaneously placed four albums in Billboard’s Top Ten Albums Chart – a feat never attained before or since, even by The Beatles. Fifty years later (October 2009), The Front Porch Country Band has released their own fourth album, “Here We Go Again,” in quiet tribute to the trailblazing group who 50 years earlier (May, 1959) accepted the very first Grammy for Country and Western Performance. It is not the first time The Front Porch Country Band has tipped their hats to their musical mentors. The band’s first full-length album, “Somebody Tonight,” expresses the band’s thanks to The Kingston Trio for their musical inspiration. The influence of The Kingston Trio on American music is well documented. In the “All Music Guide,” music critic Bruce Eder states, “In the history of popular music, there are a relative handful of performers who have redefined the content of the music at critical points in history—people whose music left the landscape, and definition of popular music, altered completely. The Kingston Trio were one such group, transforming folk music into a hot commodity and creating a demand where none had existed before…from 1957 until 1963, the Kingston Trio were the most vital and popular folk group in the world…” As founding Kingston Trio member Bob Shane, told “Original American Country” from his home in Phoenix, “we did four albums a year and toured 280 days a year…nobody's ever heard of that since then …we didn’t call ourselves folk singers. We were just guys having a good time chasing chicks, you know (laughs). They didn’t have a folk-singing category the first year of the Grammy’s…they wanted to give us a Grammy for ‘Tom Dooley’…so they used us to help Country Music out. We won the first Grammy ever given for best country and western presentation that year.” Shane recently came off the road after nearly a half century of performing with The Kingston Trio. Yet the legendary American music treasure he founded over fifty years ago continues touring nationwide. | |
 Bob Shane leads The Kingston Trio onstage at the historic Community Arts Center during the band’s most recent performance in Williamsport, PA, 14 March 2003. |
 The Kingston Trio featuring George Grove and original founding members Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds perform at The Kirby Center, Scranton, PA. Reynolds passed away in 2008. |
 Fifty years ago with the release of their fourth album, “Here We Go Again,” in October 1959, The Kingston Trio took command of Billboard’s Album Charts by placing four albums in their Top Ten – a feat never achieved before or since – even by The Beatles. |
The Front Porch Country Band released their fourth album, containing 15 original new recordings, "Here We Go Again," in October 2009, their first full-length studio album since returning from a world tour of China. The album is titled as a tribute to The Kingston Trio's release fifty years earlier. |
| Read full interview from Original American Country magazine here. | |