Kingston Trio Split The Scene
Influential Folksinging Combo Hang Up Their Guitars at hungry i

San Francisco, June 27

The Kingston Trio played their last gig here at the hungry i. Ten years three college kids with guitars had started a revolution in pop music at the cellar club, and now they were playing their last engagement there before disbanding and going their separate ways.

In the decade between the two hungry i dates, the trio had been more successful financially than any other group except the Beatles. In rout, their style of irreverent mock-folk singing had prepared the stage for the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the other that followed. But the times they are a-changing.

Even the 250seat hungry i had outgrown itself. With the end of the Kingston Trio's stand it was officially reverting back to a "discovery club" with low prices and unknown talent named "the old hungry i." This summer owner Enrico Bandicci, in partnership with United Artists Theater Circuit president Marshall Naify, is launching the new "hungry i," a plush supper club with twice the old's capacity. It will feature the acts that grew famous and too expensive for the once bohemian cellar boite. The opener will be Glenn Yarborough, scion of the Limeliters, another group that once flourished at the old hungry i.

"We haven't the room anymore," explained Bandicci, "Like tonight we must have irritated a thousand people." The Trio's last night had been sold out since mid-February, according to the i's manager, David Allen. Most of the crowd, like the members of the Trio itself, were in their mid-30s.

Monterey Festival
The kids were all at the Monterey Pop Festival which featured the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, The Mamas & Papas, Jefferson Airplane, Lou Rawls and Ravi Shankar.

"We grew up," Nick Reynolds explained. "And it got to the place where it just wasn't groovy doing the old stuff any more. So we wanted to change,. Do new stuff. But they, your audience, won't let you. They resist change.

"Also, there's a terrific gap between generations, and our generation is right in the middle of the thing. The old generation is conservative and the new one is hip, and ours is just kind of fumbling around. Wondering which way to go, not being accepted by either.

Reynolds, now 34, and John Stewart wear their hair long , and Bob Shane's is only slightly shorter. Reynolds claims he is really getting out of the music business as such, but his future plans are indefinite. Stewart, who replaced Trio original Dave Guard in 1962 is forming a new group as yet unnamed, to do his own material. Shane is launching on his own as a singer.

At that the Trio might have continued on lucrative club dates and college concerts indefinitely, but the scene would have been exactly what it was for their last performance together at the i, a nostalgic audience requesting the hits over the years. That pretty much fills an evening, "Tom Dooley" was their first 1,000,000 seller, and they sang "It's Hard," "One More Town," "M.T.A.," "Reverend Mr. Black," "Greenback Dollar," "Where Have All The Flowers Gone."

The closing set continued well past closing and when it was finally over the audience remained in their seats applauding uninterruptedly, even after it was evident the Trio was not coming back for one more encore.

Stewart shook his head and commented wryly. "It's like being at our own funeral."

-- THANK YOU to Bill Welsch for sharing photo copies
of the foregoing articles for our reading enjoyment.

Last revised: February 23, 2006.