~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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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