
Susan Keays with Bob Shane, and
Bobbie Shane, Modeling The KT Sportsman Hat
Mikey Burns took these pictures at the Shane house...We are loving the
new hats!!!!!
We lost yet another great friend...
We are so sad to report
that Tom Drake died Friday, August 8th, after many months of battling
cancer. Tom co-wrote the songs White
Snows of Winter and Escape of Old John Webb with
Bob Shane.
Bob and Tom met in 1960 and instantly became friends. They
had a lot of fun together over the years, and remained close.
Tom was one of the Goodtime Singers on the Andy Williams Show,
and besides writing songs was a successful screenwriter.
Tom was an incredible man of many talents who managed to do everything
he wanted in life with great enthusiasm and humor. Tom's wit, talent
and giving good nature will be sorely missed. |
Bob Shane And Tom Drake In
February 2000
Updates:
~Trio Fantasy Camp
is on for August 14th, 15th & 16th at the Scottsdale Plaza
Resort, in Scottsdale, AZ. Expect the same great shows, comaraderie,
all-night jam sessions and delighting in old friends as always.
This one will be a tribute to John Stewart and
will include special guests George Grove, Bill Zorn & Rick Dougherty.
They will sing a mini set of 4-5 songs to honor John & the camp.
We'll see you all there, we hope!
~Now available for purchase
at the
The
Kingston Trio Store:
Kingston
Trio Bucket Hats...these are cool!
Kingston Trio Window Stickers...thanks
for the great idea, Dan Hartline!
~We've decided to break up the new DVD into two Volumes, to accomodate all the
neat stuff we have to release. So, here's how it is (for now):
Vol
I:
Complete Jack Benny Show
Complete "Mrs. G. vs. The
Kingston Trio."
Vol II:
What's My Line
Complete 7-up promo plus 6 commercials
(4 of which have never been released)
A "record package" promo
2 songs from
the Mercury Star Theatre
Trio segment from the George Burns show which
includes 2 songs
(The release date for
Vol. I is mid-September, Vol II will be soon after)
~The Christmas Concert
CD is going to be broken into two discs (in the same package).
One disk will have the entire Christmas concert, the 2nd disk
will be the Christmas music only, plus 3 more Christmas songs
the guys are going to add at the recording studio! Release
date will still be early fall. |
| ~If you ever
wanted to know the full history of the song Charlie And The MTA,
this is a very interesting read. It's a very detailed account of
Walter A. O'Brien, the political climate in Boston during
his campaign, the writers of the song and the red scare that started
in Boston. Well worth it for you history
buffs. |
The
Forgotten Story Of Charlie
And The MTA
Available For Purchase
Now -
Two New CDs...

Bob Shane: The World Needs A Melody
Finally, a solo CD
by Bob Shane...with a little help from his friends! This CD features
Bob's handpicked favorite songs and ballads including many that
were requested by fans and friends over the years. Two of the songs,
"The World Needs A Melody" and "The Dutchman" are
from Bob's private collection - never before released in these versions.
Bob says, "I recorded
this CD because I've never done a solo album before and I thought
it would be fun. Being retired and 74 years old, I wanted to
know if I could still do it."
"I also wanted
to pay tribute to some dear friends who are no longer with us,
like John Stewart and Stan Wilson. Each and every one of these
songs has special meaning to me. You'll find out all about it
in the liner notes."
"Overall, I'm very pleased
with this CD and hope you feel the same."
Songs: The World Needs A Melody, The Dutchman, The Fox Went Out
On A Chilly Night, Lock All The Windows, When My Love Was Here,
Pay Me My Money Down, High-Heeled Shoes, Qualalinta, A Rolling
Stone, Coal Tatoo, She Was Too Good To Me, All of the Hard Days
Are Gone, Scotch and Soda. |

Turning Like Forever: Kingston Trio Rarities Volume 2
Nick
Reynolds, Bob Shane, and John Stewart return to the Collectors
Choice Music catalog with another exclusive collection of previously
unreleased KINGSTON TRIO recordings: Turning
Like Forever: Kingston Trio Rarities Volume 2.
The title comes from
the lyrics of a classic song from the pen of the late, great John
Stewart - Children of the Morning - one of 15 tracks from
1964-1967 (7 new songs, and 8 alternate takes), as well as a very
funny 1963 radio interview, recaptured and lovingly polished by
Grammy-nominated producer Ron Furmanek.
Standouts include John’s
growlingly effective take on Mason Williams’ Road Song,
and his sincere cover of Donovan’s To Try For the Sun (check
out Rarities Volume 1 for Nick’s
equally classy rendition), and Bob’s moving interpretation
of Adieu Foulard, as well as his fine lead vocal on Rod
McKuen’s The Summer’s Long.
Tops among the
alternates are Love’s Been Good To Me, where everyone
takes a verse, and this outstanding version of If I Had a Ship,
which begs the question “Was M.T.A. really Nick’s
finest vocal performance?” This one gives it a true run for
its money!
And no Trio collection
would be complete without a previously unheard John Stewart composition, January
Summer, which will
please both Trio fans and those who have enjoyed John’s solo
career. One fan who belongs to both groups, Tom DeLisle, contributes
the poignant liner notes.
More than four decades
after Nick, Bob, and John’s final recordings, their worldwide circle of fans
continues to grow, keeping the great music “turning like
forever.”
Songs: Love’s
Been Good To Me, Road Song, Love Poem #1, Stories of Old (instrumental), Little
Play Soldiers, January Summer, Love Comes A-Trickling Down,
The Summer’s
Long, Go Tell Roger, Love Poem #2, If I Had a Ship, When You’ve
Been Away For a Long Time (vocals), To Try For the Sun,
Adieu Foulard, Children of the Morning, Radio Interview
9/14/1963, Radio Spots 4/17/1964. |
Order
New CD Releases At The Kingston Trio Store
*********************************************
| ~Bob was presented with
his Bob Shane model Deering banjo in Las Vegas over the weekend
of March 2-3 by Greg Deering himself. It's a beauty. For
more info on the Kingston Trio series banjos and pictures: More
Info |
We miss you, Johnny Stew...
We are devastated to
report that John Stewart passed away early on the morning of January
19th. John suffered a massive stroke on Thursday evening. He was surrounded
by his family & friends.
The world has lost one of its best men, but a man who lived well and made many
people happy with his love, his wit and his music. John Stewart
lives on in all of us and will never be forgotten. |

| Below
is a beautiful letter written about Johnny by Tom Delisle...Tom,
no one says it any better than this ~ Bob Shane |
My friend John Stewart died this morning in San Diego, California
... in the
hospital he was born in on September 5th, 1939 ... 68 years ago.
John suffered a massive stroke or brain aneurysm early Friday morning
in San
Diego. Doctors had determined that any difficult surgical remedies
that might have
been employed to save his life-- even if successful -- would
had left John immobile and unable to speak. It wasn't generally known,
but doctors had told John in recent years that he had apparently
experienced various minor strokes, likely in his sleep.
In the early 1970s, Stewart wrote "Cooler Water, Higher Ground," one
of his many highly personalized songs, in which he sang "I was
born in the heat of September, and I died in the cool of the fall
... borning and dying we do all the time, it don't mean much of nothing
at all." But his passing
will mean so much, to so many, around the world.
John's all-time companion and wife Buffy, and his children -- Mikael,
Jeremy, Amy, and Luke -- were at his side when he passed peacefully
around 7:30 a.m. Pacific time. John never regained consciousness
after collapsing in his hotel room late Thursday/early Friday, and
was not in pain during his time at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San
Diego.
John Stewart leaves a compilation of musical excellence unparalleled
in his time. He recorded over 45 solo albums following his seven
years in the Kingston Trio, 1961-67. He worked all the way up to
the time of his death, having recently completed his latest as-yet
untitled album. It is estimated that he wrote more than 600 unique
and highly personal songs, many of them constituting a modern musical
history of his beloved America.
He leaves behind a wide-ranging group of fans who have felt a passion
for him and his music that bordered on fanaticism. Chief among them
are the Bloodliners, a hard-core legion of supporters who communicated
via computer everyday in discussing John and his career.
It can now be said that John was told last summer, shortly before
Trio Fantasy Camp 8, that he was suffering from the initial stages
of Alzheimer's disease. That news was kept from the public in the
hope that his condition would stabilize and allow him to work in
the following years until the disease took its eventual toll. Indeed
he had stabilized in the time since Camp, and was able to bravely
perform several concert shows and do the studio work on his new album.
If there is a blessing in his passing, it is that he will now be
spared the true ravages of that awful disease. He will not suffer
the gradual personal mental reductions caused by Alzheimer's, though
he had already lost his ability to drive, owing to California law.
In fact, one of the new songs on the upcoming album is "I Can't
Drive Anymore," a typically
honest and emotional personal reaction to his situation.
Speaking personally, losing John creates a hole in my soul. I had
agonized for months over the Alzheimer's prognosis. But after talking
with many of his friends and family yesterday, I can see that --
facing a debilitating future -- it was -- and this is so hard to
say --the right time for him to go. This is what he would have wanted,
in light of what he ultimately faced.
Johnny always drew a crowd, and there was a gathering of friends
at the hospital in San Diego over the past two days. Starting with
Nick Reynolds from John's Trio days and his wife Leslie, John's
entire family had been joined at his bedside by longtime sidekick
Dave "Dave" Batti,
John Hoke, Chuck McDermott, Greg Jorgenson, John's boyhood best friend
George Yanok, who flew in from Nashville upon hearing the news, and
other family, friends, and acquaintances. A kind of "Irish wake" was
held throughout Friday and into early Saturday, with the friends
and old bandmates sharing many of the limitless John Stewart stories.
No plans have been announced yet for any memorial observations. I'll
let you
know as soon as Buffy decides.
I'm so sorry to have to write this, to have to tell you this. Outside
my closest family members, John was the brightest light of my life.
This creates an emptiness that can never be filled. If you are tempted
to mourn to great lengths today, as so many of us surely are, we
have to remind ourselves of what a gift he was for all of us. And
how lucky we all were to have had the opportunity to have shared
in his amazing music and stage artistry. We might, each of us, have
missed him, you know. But--lucky for us--we didn't.
He hated moping around, and looked for the bright side, and laughter,
in everything. He wouldn't even allow me to be 'down' about having
cancer. He even berated me at one point about it. He had amazing
drive, and a creative force within him that was stunning in its intensity
and breadth. And some day his amazing personal songs will be discovered
by a mass audience, and the world at large, and he will receive the
wide-ranging accolades he was denied in his time.
Trust me. Think about him today, listen to that incredible body of
his work, think about the electric personality we experienced in
EVERY show he did .. in the literally thousands and thousands of
performances in which he gave us everything he had, stretching from
venues big and small, from coast to coast, from 1957 to 2007.
You
will smile when you do; and eventually laugh when recalling the magic
of his art and personality. We will not see his like again, but we
have been so lucky to have shared him across the decades -- and found
each other through him, because of him. It does not feel like it,
but we are the lucky ones today. That will become evident in the
time to come.
Because, like you ... I loved him too.
Tom DeLisle |
2008 - A happy 50th birthday
to the song "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley"
~Nick
Reynolds is getting hipper!
Check out Nick's
Hip Blog Page
We Lost A Great Friend In 2007...

We are sad to announce
that Enrico Banducci, 85, died October 9th, 2007.
Enrico was the founder of the famous Hungry i nightclub in
San Francisco and was a pioneer in live show business.
He gave many people their first boost in the business, including
Mort Sahl, Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Professor Irwin Corey, TheGateway
Singers, Bud & Travis,
Woody Allen and of course The Kingston Trio.
He was a great man,
a wonderful character and an inspiration to us all.
Mike Solner, a Superior
Court Judge in Los Angeles, has written a screen play on the Hungry
i Nightclub, and we really hope it becomes a movie. The world
should be aware of Enrico's contributions to live entertainment. |
Event
Photos For You To Enjoy
The
Hungry i Exhibition in San Francisco View
Photos
Kingston Trio 50 Year Hawaiian Cruise! View
Photos
Trio Fantasy
Camp 8 August 16-18, 2007 View
Photos
Videos
For You To Enjoy
Songs from Live From the Yuma DVD Yuma
Video
Songs from the Java 5 nightclub
DVD Java
5 Video
Keep
up on the Trio's high jinks with Rick's pics! By
Rick Dougherty
"Were
It Not For Allan Shaw, A Trove Of Vintage Music Would be Dead And
Buried"
A very well-deserved
and long overdue tribute to one of our dearest friends Read
Article
Travis Edmonson
Documentary In The Works
Bill McCune,
owner of McCune Television, is producing a Travis Edmonson
documentary, scheduled for release sometime in 2007. Bill
is asking fans all over the world to send any souvenirs they
have, to add to the “texture” of the documentary.
If you have
ticket stubs, playbills, photographs (Travis, Bud & Travis,
Travis w/ other celebrities, Travis with fans), ads, reviews,
anything, Bill would love to get a copy. He’ll accept
originals, but they can't be returned, so the best bet
is to scan the items.
Send the scanned items to Bonnie
Brock:info@arizonafolk.net
You can also use this email address to ask Bonnie any questions.
If you have film clips, please tell us about those as well.
It’s possible they could be incorporated into the documentary.
Thanks! Bonnie |
Read the latest Kingston
Trio Reviews! Reviews
Listen
To George, Bill & Rick sing "Road To Freedom" (now that's
harmony!)
|