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| Last revised: February 23, 2006. |
| Baylor University Lariat | November 9, 1962 | |
The Kingston Trio |
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| They Write, but Can't Read (Music) | ||
| The Kingston
Trio sings many songs the members themselves write,
although none of them can read music. Johnny picks them out on his guitar, said Nick Reynolds. Then they learn the basic instrumental and vocal parts. The three -- Bob Shane, Nock Reynolds and John Stewart -- said they all have basically the same musical tastes. Since they "have pretty much the same vocal ranges," they said, they constantly switch singing parts. The Trio chatting informally with some Lariat reporters after the show Thursday night, said that unlike popular recording artists, they have never been mobbed, |
except for
"a little rowdiness backstage after the show," The programs for their shows are made up without any outside help. "We sing what we enjoy and what we can have fun singing," they said. They also pointed out that the trend in their music has been toward more refined songs and away from the folk-type singing they became famous for at first. The Trio said they do not feel stereophonic records help their sound. "In our recording sessions we use three voice mikes and four instrument mike. "But on stage we'd rather use only one mike |
-- even
though it doesn't sound as good and it's hard to get all
those instruments around one mike," they said.
"But singing with one mike establishes and makes it
easier to maintain rapport among the three of us." The group travels about 100,000 miles each year, mostly by air. "Sometimes we charter a bus just for the five of us," they said, laughing. In their travels they said they find some of their songs are more popular in certain areas than in other. For example, they said their music with a lot of banjos is popular in Tennessee. But they concluded, "Overall Texas is good -- real good." |
-- Thank you to Barry Martin for sharing this article with the LINER NOTES
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| Last revised: February 23, 2006. |