Kingston Trio, R.I.P.

Bob Shane is on the left.

The story was online and in the newspapers this week: Bob Shane, the last living member of The Kingston Trio, passed away at age 85 on Sunday (link to NYT obituary for Shane).

I remember the Trio well--remember Shane well. Back in the early and mid-1960s I loved the Trio's music, and they were the principal reason I acquired a guitar and learned to play some chords and "played" some of the Trio's songs. I thought I had talent (didn't) and even thought that a friend and I, who formed a duo called The Outlanders, would Make It Big (we didn't).

Okay, we did audition for Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour in the summer of 1968, and we actually got a callback to appear on the show, but by the time we heard, my friend was out in Wyoming going to grad school, and I was teaching full-time at the Aurora Middle School in Ohio. So ... Dreams Die.

And it's a good thing this one did: My "talents" on my 12-string were ... limited (to be generous). And my voice? Never mind ...

The Trio was very popular at the time. Lots of people were lugging around guitars and singing at gatherings: It was the time of the hootenany (there was even a TV show with that name from April 1963-September 1964). There was a Hootenany magazine, too, and the Trio appeared on the cover of the December 1964 issue. (See pic.)

And other folk groups and individuals were popular at the time, as well: The Limeliters; Peter, Paul, and Mary; the Chad Mitchell Trio; Joan Baez; Bob Dylan ...

Then ... here came The Beatles--and buh-bye folk music as the most popular genre.

Anyway, I bought the Trio's albums; I memorized their songs; and I even got to see the Trio perform once--after their years of fame.

It was December 1976--at Cleveland's Front Row Theater (R.I.P.). Shane was still performing with the group--and was, in fact, the only original member still with the group. Joyce was with me (we'd been married about seven years at the time), and she endured my humming along with "Tom Dooley" and "Scotch and Soda" and their other hits.

I don't remember a lot about that night, but I do remember this incident with Shane--and I remember it fairly clearly.

In one of the songs--in the middle of it--he decided he needed to change a string on his acoustic guitar. So ... while he and the others continued singing, he removed the old string, inserted a new one, tightened it, tuned it--and continued on to some considerable applause.

I remember thinking at the time What an awesome thing that was--changing a guitar string in the middle of a song! Then, later, I remember thinking: I bet he does that at every show.

So ... I was sad to learn that Shane had died. I was shocked to learn that he was 85. Because if he was 85, then that means I'm ...

Never mind.

R.I.P., Kingston Trio. Your songs still bounce around in my head at the damnedest times. And when I "hear" them that way, I am inexpressibly happy.