I am about 42 years late in registering this comment, but here goes just the same. I watch the video of 1981 Kingston Trio Reunion telecast several times a year, enjoyably for the most part, but I always find it hard to watch some pieces of it, particularly the NBJ re-creation of one of my all-time favorite songs in the collective KT repertoire, "Chilly Winds."

Given the importance of the event and its meaning to Trio fans from all over the world, I've never understood why John Stewart (for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration) chose to play a guitar that is clearly not up to par. His iconic opening solo is is simply painful to hear because the strings are buzzing horribly on the fretboard, and do so for the remainder of the song. To me, it is comparable to someone showing up at a wedding or memorial wearing swimming trunks and flip-flops. It is almost as though Bob Shane called him up that day and said, "Hey John, if you are not too busy, how would you like to join us tonight for a reunion show? Grab a couple of instruments and meet us at Magic Mountain." As a guitarist, I can't imagine willingly playing an instrument in such a condition at a clearly important event, and would have thought those involved in the production would have done something about it...which would not have been that hard to do (borrow George or Roger's guitar, for example).

I am sure I am in a very small minority in voicing this criticism, and realize also that it probably was hard for Bob to pull everyone together and find rehearsal time for the reunion show. If someone knows the inside story about how they put this program together, I'd welcome their insight.

I otherwise love and remain deeply indebted to the Kingston Trio (the Guard and Stewart years especially) for inspiring me to learn to play and perform, which I've been doing continuously since 1964.